assembly-elections

Updated: Jul 06, 2020 23:24 IST

Differences within the Mumbai unit of Congress have again come to the fore as its former president Sanjay Nirupam on Thursday lashed out at his party for denying a party ticket to his loyalist and threatened not to campaign for the party during the Maharashtra state elections.In two tweets, Nirupam said he had asked for only one seat from Mumbai but the request had been turned down.

“I had recommended just one name in Mumbai for Assembly election. Heard that even that has been rejected. As I had told the leadership earlier,in that case I will not participate in poll campaign. Its my final decision,” (sic) he tweeted.

His second tweet reads, “I hope that the day has not yet come to say good bye to party. But the way leadership is behaving with me, it doesn’t seem far away(sic)”.

The Congress is yet to announce all Mumbai candidates.

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Sanjay Nirupam wanted a party ticket for one of his loyalists from North West constituency from where Nirupam had fought Lok Sabha polls and lost to Shiv Sena’s Gajanan Kirtikar.

Nirupam believes the party should have given the party ticket to his supporter who had worked hard for his campaign during the Lok Sabha campaign . “You need to promote the party workers who work hard during the elections. If the party doesn’t value such people, then what is the point,” he told HT.Nirupam has, however, said he will take a final call on continuing in the party after the state polls. Voting on Maharashtra 288 assembly seats is scheduled for October 21. The votes will be counted on October 24.

Mumbai Congress is divided into various factions which are at loggerheads with each other.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the party leadership removed Sanjay Nirupam as Mumbai Congress president and replaced him with Milind Deora who resigned from the post following party’s defeat in Mumbai in Lok Sabha elections.

Just last month, actress-turned-politician Urmila Matondkar quit the Congress six months after joining the party and blamed “petty in-house politics” for the decision. Matondkar had written a letter to then Mumbai Congress chief Milind Deora against Nirupam and his aides.Sanjay Nirupam had then advised Urmila Matondkar that she should stay put. “Infighting is part and partial of every organisations. We must fight against this instead of giving up..,” Nirupam, who had started out in the Shiv Sena before landing in the Congress many years ago, had then tweeted.