Feeling sidelined by ministers, 25 Maharashtra Congress MLAs want to meet Sonia Gandhi

MUMBAI: At least 25 Congress MLAs from Maharashtra have sought an appointment with party president Sonia Gandhi to complain against Congress ministers in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government who “did not respond to their concerns”. The legislators, in a letter, urged Gandhi to intervene to “fix things”.

Some MLAs told ET that ministers in the MVA, especially Congress ministers, were “not coordinating” with them, asking one of them, “if ministers ignore requests to implement the work in MLAs’ constituencies.” So how will the party do well in the elections,” one of them asked.

Indicating the lack of coordination in the party, the MLAs said they came to know only last week that each Congress minister was assigned three party MLAs to address their issues appropriately. “We came to know when HK Patil held a meeting recently that Congress ministers were allotted three MLAs each. This was apparently done a few months after the MVA government was formed, but we only got to know about it. Found out only 2.5 years ago. Elections. Even now, no one knows which minister is associated with us,” said another Congress MLA.

Other Congress MLAs said the party lagged behind the Nationalist Congress Party as Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar regularly meets NCP MLAs, allocates funds and listens to their grievances. Another Congress MLA said, “NCP is attacking us. More funds are allocated to NCP ministries and if things remain the same, Congress in Maharashtra will be marginalized like other states.” The MLAs said that immediate action should be taken after the party’s defeat in Punjab. He said that if the party remains ‘useless’ in Maharashtra, there may be ‘similar results’.

Originally published at Pen 18