Headlines
Chavan made Maharashtra Congress chief, Nirupam heads Mumbai
Mumbai, March 2
Former chief minister Ashok
Chavan was appointed the new Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee
president, with Sanjay Nirupam taking over as Mumbai's party chief,
officials said.
Chavan replaced Manikrao Thakre, who headed the
party for seven years and Nirupam took over from Dalit leader Janardhan
Chandurkar, who headed the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee for two
years.
"I welcome the appointments made by Congress president
Sonia Gandhi... I also thank her for giving me the opportunity to serve
as the state party head for seven years," Thakre told IANS.
The
move came nearly 10 months after the Congress was routed in the Lok
Sabha elections in 2014 and four months after suffering heavy losses in
the October 2014 assembly polls.
Thakre and Chandurkar had quit
after the assembly defeat. Chavan and Nirupam are now expected to revive
the party for the next polls.
Senior Congress leader Narayan
Rane, a strong contender for the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee
(MPCC) chief's post, expressed his strong displeasure over the two
important appointments, saying that top state leaders were not
consulted.
"Even after losing the elections, the party has not
learnt any lessons. This is painful," said Rane, a former chief
minister, adding that he would announce his future plan of action
Tuesday.
Hailing from Nanded in Marathwada region, Chavan, 56,
was elected as the chief minister in December 2008 in the wake of 26/11
Mumbai terror attack and to replace late Vilasrao Deshmukh.
However,
Chavan was forced to quit in November 2010 after his name figured in
the Adarsh Society scam. Later, his name cropped up in a paid news scam,
pending before the courts.
Chavan, credited with riding over the
'Modi wave' in the last Lok Sabha elections, was among the two MPs
elected from Maharashtra despite the legal cases dogging him.
He
has a tough task cut out for him to build up the Congress from the ruins
of the last Lok Sabha and assembly debacle, challenge the might of
Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party, a former ally of 15 years,
and check the growing clout of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv
Sena alliance.
Born in Bihar, Nirupam, 50, has been a two-time
former Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP and executive editor of the party
mouthpiece 'Dopaharka Saamana', before quitting Shiv Sena in 2005.
He
joined Congress party and was elected from Mumbai North Lok Sabha
constituency in 2009. He lost in polls in 2014 by a record margin.
The
first major challenge to Nirupam,, hailed as the north-Indian face of
Congress in Mumbai, is set to come in the 2017 elections of Brihan
Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
With the Shiv Sena and
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena fighting for the Maharashtrian vote, the BJP
vying for the Gujarati votes, Nirupam's appointment is considered
critical for the party's prospects in the civic polls.