Congress may replace Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan
- Details
- Category: Maharashtra Political News
- Last Updated: Thursday, 22 January 2015 20:59
Congress may replace Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: The Congress leadership is seriously mulling a change of chief minister in Maharashtra following the massive Lok Sabha debacle under Prithviraj Chavan. Sources said the leadership has come under pressure from party MLAs as well as ally NCP who feel that replacing the chief minister is an imperative to dodge the prospect of a defeat staring at the coalition.
It is learnt that names of party MLAs Balasaheb Thorat, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and Harshavardhan Patil are under consideration as possible substitutes for Chavan.
Although he lost the Lok Sabha polls, former Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has also been discussed as a possibility. He has been the party's dalit face in the state and is considered to be the ideal choice to bring all factions together for a compromise.
Haryana CM B S Hooda, under whom the party suffered a rout, may survive only because there is no alternative.
Maharashtra goes to elections in October amid a sense of resignation that the Congress-NCP alliance may be ejected from power after an uninterrupted run of 15 years.
The Lok Sabha polls literally swept out the ruling combine, with Congress winning just two seats and ally NCP four out of the 48 seats in the state. With assembly polls coming so soon, little is likely to change in the popular mood, it is feared.
The Congress tilt towards junking Chavan is as much a result of the Lok Sabha debacle as the vote of no-confidence in him expressed by various leaders.
While Narayan Rane went public with his criticism of Chavan, party sources said a number of MLAs favour a leadership change. NCP, uncomfortable with Chavan since the beginning of his tenure, has also stepped up pressure.
The disillusionment with the Maharashtra chief minister is evident in the fact that the party is thinking of removing him despite the realization that it has few recognized names to choose from as replacement after the death of former CM Vilasrao Deshmukh.
While Ashok Chavan has just been elected to Lok Sabha and carries the baggage of the Adarsh scam, Rane is short on trust quotient given his Sena background as well as his repeated show of anger against the leadership.
Despite Shinde also being under consideration, Congress is unlikely to settle for any community other than the dominant Marathas for chief ministership ahead of elections.
Thorat and the two Patils on the leadership's shortlist -- Radhakrishna Vikhe and Harshavardhan -- all belong to the dominant community.
A change in Maharashtra leadership would put to end the murmurs of discontent against CM Chavan who positioned himself high on the probity plank but failed to carry state colleagues along. Ally NCP too has been unhappy with him for a while now. He has mostly been accused of slow decision-making.
source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/