The Congress party in Maharashtra suffered a major blow on Monday as former chief minister and senior leader Ashok Chavan resigned from the party and met the assembly speaker, sparking speculation that he would join the BJP. Chavan, who was also an MP from Nanded, submitted his resignation to state Congress chief Nana Patole, saying he was quitting the grand old party.
Chavan’s exit came days after Congress leaders Milind Deora and Baba Siddique left the party to join the Shiv Sena faction led by chief minister Eknath Shinde and the NCP faction led by deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, respectively. Sources said that Chavan was likely to get a ticket from the BJP for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections.
The Congress, which is already struggling to retain its relevance in the state politics, also faced criticism from the BJP and other parties for its leader Rahul Gandhi’s controversial remark on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s caste. Addressing a public rally in Odisha on Thursday, Gandhi alleged that Modi was not born in the OBC category, but in the Teli caste, which was in the general category until the BJP included it in the OBC list in 2000.
Gandhi accused Modi of misleading the people by claiming to be an OBC and said that this was the reason why his government was opposed to a nationwide caste census. He also said that Modi was a “Modh Ghanchi” in Chhattisgarh, another sub-caste of the Teli community.
The BJP hit back at Gandhi, calling his statement “shameful and baseless”. Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said that Gandhi had stooped to a new low and questioned his knowledge of history and geography. He said that the Teli and Modh Ghanchi communities, to which Modi belongs, had been part of the OBC list in Gujarat since 1995, when the Congress was in power in the state, and were included in the central list since 1999.
Prasad also said that the poor people, the SCs, STs and backward communities of the country considered Modi as their leader and that the Congress was in darkness. He said that Gandhi should stop making such shameful and baseless statements and focus on the issues of the people.
The Congress, however, defended Gandhi, saying that he had only stated the facts and that the BJP was trying to divert attention from the real issues of the people. Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said that Gandhi had exposed Modi’s lies and that the BJP was rattled by his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. She said that the BJP had no moral right to talk about the OBCs, as it had opposed the Mandal Commission report and the reservation policy.
She also said that the Congress was not worried about the defection of its leaders, as they had no ideological commitment to the party. She said that the Congress was a strong and united party and that it would continue to fight for the rights and interests of the people.
