Maharashtra polls: Fearing defeat, Cong readies to scapegoat Prithviraj Chavan

Anticipating the defeat in the assembly elections, Congress leaders in Maharashtra are reportedly preparing to train their guns on former CM Prithviraj Chavan and heap blame for the party’s defeat on him. Some of them seem to be miffed by the allegedly lacklustre campaign that the Congress ran under Chavan, compared to BJP’s high voltage blitzkrieg led by PM Narendra Modi.  “We could neither match BJP’s campaign in appeal nor could be reach out to the masses," a Congress leader said, requesting anonymity. The leader added that Chavan had largely camped in his hometown and constituency in South Karad in Satara district of Western Maharashtra. “It was the same case with other leaders like Narayan Rane, Sushilkumar Shinde and Ashok Chavan. They hardly ventured out of their respective constituencies. It clearly shows that the campaign was not well planned,” the leader added. [caption id=“attachment_1762447” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Prithviraj Chavan. Agencies.[/caption] While former senior cabinet minister Narayan Rane was the chief of the campaign committee, former CM Ashok Chavan and former union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde was the head of the coordination committee and the manifesto committee respectively. Another leader said that there was lack of coordination in organizing the public rallies. “We organized very few rallies which featured big names like that of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi in Maharashtra. Shockingly, not a single rally was organized in Mumbai where we have 17 legislators at present. Also, there were no star campaigners from other regions like other parties had,” he said pointing at the number of public rallies addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet colleagues in Maharashtra. He added that what added insult to the injury was Chavan’s controversial interview with comments on Adarsh scam, his predecessors and his allies a day before the polling day in Maharashtra. “We were projecting Chavan’s clean image despite the continuous tirade by the opposition accusing him of taking slow decisions during his tenure. But, his clean image was hit after he made controversial remarks on the Adarsh scam and his predecessors. The  BJP took advantage of it and used his statements in advertisements on the polling day. It sent out a wrong message in the general public which is likely to cost us,” the leader explained. Criticizing Chavan’s controversial remarks, Manikrao Thakre, president of Maharashtra Congress committee said on Friday that a wrong message was sent out and it put a question mark on the party ahead of the polling in the crucial Assembly elections. Congress leaders believe that the action is likely to be taken by party leadership against Chavan for his controversial remarks after considering the party’s performance in the assembly polls. A reshuffle in the state Congress committee is reportedly on the cards too, said a leader. While the Congress leaders have refused to accept the exit polls figures, some of the senior Congress leaders are now eyeing the post of leader of opposition in the legislative assembly and council hoping that party will get enough seats to become the principle opposition party in the state. Congress sources said that senior leaders are calling up sitting legislators who are likely to win and asking them to back them within the party for the opposition leader’s post. While the former minister Harshavardhan Patil is seen as front runner for the post of LoP, senior leader Narayan Rane and former minister Radha-Krishna Vikhe Patil are also keen on leading the opposition.