Wayanad bypoll: Low voter turnout dampens Congress spirits
Political observers say that the massive turnout of crowd during the campaigns of Priyanka in the constituency is not reflected in the polling.
In an apparent warning to the sulking leaders of NCP and Congress, former Maharashtra Congress MP Yashwantrao Gadakh on Sunday said that if the ministers will keep on hampering the working of the government over issues such as allotment of bungalows and portfolios, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will be forced to submit his resignation.
In a strong message, he said: “Behave properly or Uddhav Thackeray will resign”.
Gadakh further said that Uddhav Thackeray is “not a regular politician” and “he has the mentality of an artist”.
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Dissatisfaction has been brewing among the allies of Shiv Sena in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra.
The Congress in the state has been facing internal differences with some senior leaders saying that they have been ignored in the cabinet expansion.
Congress ministers accompanied by Mallikarjun Kharge, KC Venugopal and party secretary Ashish Dua, had also met Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and apparently talked about the dissent.
It is not just the Congress leaders who are upset with the Cabinet expansion.
NCP’s four-time MLA Prakash Solanke from Majalgaon in Beed had threatened to quit his seat, claiming he was disgusted with politics and would only concentrate on social work henceforth.
Amid the growing discontent, the Shiv Sena had admitted that there was a tussle among senior leaders of the three ruling alliance parties in Maharashtra for key Cabinet berths, and said that some MLAs could not be inducted as ministers because the list of “probables” was huge.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Uddhav Thackeray was formed on November 28.
Balasaheb Thorat and Nitin Raut of the Congress, Eknath Shinde and Subhash Desai of the Shiv Sena and Jayant Patil and Chhagan Bhujbal of the NCP took oath along with Thackeray on November 28. It was expanded to its full strength on December 30.
The Shiv Sena had joined hands with the Congress and NCP, its traditional adversaries, after its alliance with the BJP collapsed over the issue of sharing the chief ministerial post.
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