Mumbai: State Congress chief Nana Patole on Monday dismissed as “rumours” talk of his resignation following the assembly election debacle.
Patole made the remarks after meeting Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in New Delhi, during which he conveyed that the result had not reflected the sentiments of the people of Maharashtra. There was speculation in Mumbai political circles that the Congress leader had offered his resignation to the high command.
Patole himself won the Sakoli constituency in Bhandara district with the narrowest of margins, defeating BJP candidate Avinash Brahmankar by just 208 votes.
“Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and other national and state leaders were leading Maha Vikas Aghadi from the forefront. So we were sure that the trends were in favour of Maha Vikas Aghadi; even the citizens believed that,” the Congress chief said.
“If I talk about Nanded, the Lok Sabha bypolls and assembly elections were held on the same day. In Lok Sabha bypolls, our candidate was winning in six assembly seats, whereas, in the assembly elections, we are not winning even a single seat,” he said, adding that there cannot be such a “huge difference”.
This was the sentiment among the people also and they had stated that this government in Maharashtra was not being formed on their votes, he claimed. “So, I spoke to Mallikarjun Kharge on this.”
Asked whether he had offered to resign or the party had asked for his papers, Patole said, “These are all rumours and there is no truth in them. There is collective accountability.”
Patole also said he will meet Rahul Gandhi in a day or two and discuss all issues. “Democracy is being finished. We have discussed that... there was no talk of resignation,” he said.
The MVA alliance, comprising the Congress, NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) and Shiv Sena (UBT), was restrained to 46 seats by the Mahayuti that reaped a rich harvest of 230 seats in the 288-member House.
