3 Leaders Exit in a Month: What Opened the Floodgates for Maharashtra Congress?

Where did it all start? Who is to blame? Was there more to Chavan's exit than mention of Adarsh scam in White Paper?

Milind Deora and Ashok Chavan

(Photo: Facebook/Milind Deora)

"Ashok Chavan was definitely an asset for the party. Some are calling him a liability, some are holding the Enforcement Directorate (ED) responsible, all these reactions are hasty. He was basically very upset with the working style of a leader from Maharashtra," Mumbai Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam posted on X, the day the former chief minister quit the party.

Without naming any leader, Nirupam highlighted a pressing problem in the party which many leaders are not speaking about publicly – the differences within the party unit over its functioning, at the helm of which is Nana Patole.

In the two days since he quit the party, the question has been phrased and rephrased to Chavan in several ways, but he has had a standard response: 'I will not speak ill about anybody'.

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Congress, that was considered impenetrable until January while allies Nationalist Congress Party and Shiv Sena saw vertical splits, saw the beginning of an exodus with Milind Deora, followed by Baba Siddiqui.

Where did it all start? Who is to blame? Was there more to Chavan's exit than the mention of the Adarsh scam in government's White Paper? A closer look at 3 key aspects:

'Not Your Servants': Leaders on Party's Functioning

Nirupam is not the first or only leader who voiced his opinion regarding issues in the party's functioning publicly.

Speaking to the media on Tuesday, former Mumbai Regional Congress president Bhai Jagtap echoed Nirupam's views.

"Party workers are an intrinsic part of its functioning. Many of them spend their own money to propagate the ideology of the party. They aren't party's servants. The party workers of the Mumbai unit feel strongly about this. Varsha Gaikwad and Nana Patole have not been treating party workers right. They are given secondary treatment," Jagtap said.

The resentment against Patole from prominent quarters of Maharashtra Congress has come to the fore several times in the past.

In February last year, the Nagpur unit of the Congress wrote to party chief Mallikarjun Kharge against Patole's 'working style.' The unit raised several issues regarding decisions taken by Patole during the local body polls "without consulting with local leaders."

The resentment from the Nagpur unit came at the same time when Patole's rift with senior party leader and former Maharashtra Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat was out in the open over candidature of party leader Satyajit Tambe for the MLC elections.

Thorat, too, had shot a letter to Kharge stating that it's "impossible" to work with Patole. The two leaders had publicly resolved their differences later.

A similar letter, seeking Patole's removal, was also written to Kharge by Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) member Ashish Deshmukh in January last year.

In August 2023, scores of former corporators and office-bearers skipped the party's August Kranti event.

Later that month, Dharavi MLA and Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad faced a major setback when six Congress corporators joined the Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena. Local party leaders, at the time, indicated that the Mumbai Congress unit is being run like a "one-man show."

Speaking to The Quint on the condition of anonymity, a Mumbai Congress leader said: "The Adarsh scam and probe angle is definitely there. But a leader as tall as Chavan, of course wouldn't leave just like that. He had raised a few issues with the party's functioning, but with leaders as tall as him and Patole at the helm, there were bound to be differences".

"But it is also a fact that several other leaders in the party have switched sides for better opportunities. Like Chavan saheb's Rajya Sabha nomination was a well-known fact in the party circles and didn't surprise anybody," they said.

'Had Timely Action Been Taken...'

Many leaders within the party feel that if several issues regarding the state unit's functioning were addressed in time by the party's central leadership, several exits could have been averted.

"He had informed the top leadership from time to time. Had their complaints been taken seriously, this situation would not have happened," Nirupam said.

Jagtap, too, said that the party really needs to introspect why corporators and senior leaders have been leaving despite the Congress being the largest Opposition party in the state.

Though Chavan has not stated any reasons or taken any names to clarify his issues, former MLC Amar Rajurkar, the only other leader from Nanded who joined the BJP along with Chavan, indicated the scale of resentment with the party's functioning.

“Factionalism is being promoted in the Maharashtra Congress. There are 52 people in the Congress Parliamentary Board. I was too. But many other MLAs are not included in it. Some who lost deposits in their own constituencies keep hovering around the state president to be in his good books and they are being given important positions. Hence, many MLAs are upset," he told the media.

Reacting to reports of him being one of the primary reasons behind Chavan's exit, Patole told The Indian Express on Wednesday that Chavan was a part of every decision-making body and was present in all meetings a day before his resignation.

"Did I stop him from working? Did I omit his name from any committee? Has he complained against me? No. I repeat, he was the senior most leader of our party and was part of every programme. I think one should not spend time on speculation. Let him give the reason. He has not yet given any reason," Patole told IE.

The Adarsh Scam Strategy Is Working, For Now

The Adarsh Housing Society scam, that cost Chavan his CM post in 2010, is being projected by the Congress and the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance as the primary reason behind the veteran Congress leader crossing over.

The purported reason, true or not, was handed over to the Opposition by the BJP on a platter when the White Paper presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman featured the scam as one of the striking points while targeting the Congress.

"Adarsh scam was a political accident. The High Court had decided it in my favour on the matter and it is still sub-judice. There is nothing to worry about it," Chavan said on Tuesday, as he joined the BJP.

It also fits perfectly well in the Opposition's 'washing machine' narrative against the Modi government.

Refusing to officially comment on the party infighting, Congress Working Committee member Sachin Sawant squarely blamed the BJP.

"The way the political environment is changing in the country, you can see the repercussions of it in Maharashtra. The kind of politics the BJP has played for the past two years in the state has tarnished its image. Maharashtra has had a rich political culture. What they are doing is atrocious," Sawant told The Quint.

Asked about the possibility of more leaders jumping ship after Chavan, Sawant said: "You never know with the way BJP uses the central agencies. ED notice to leaders now means a letter of appointment to them. We are used to it now."

While Chavan on Wednesday was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the BJP, as was predicted, the Maharashtra Congress is now looking to keep its flock together.

Patole on Wednesday claimed that none of the MLAs will switch to the BJP "willfully".

All eyes are now set on the Congress Legislature Party meeting scheduled in Mumbai on Thursday in which the party is expected to display strength.