In a kind-of-its-own, Congress’s state in-charge has asked its district presidents' opinion for the Mumbai president’s post over a recorded call. Mumbai Congress has 227 block presidents representing the different municipal wards in the city. This decision was taken after the party in-charge HK Patil announced that it will select the new Mumbai Congress chief by December-end.
Reports state that the block presidents received a message from Patil on Monday afternoon, December 7, 2020, instructing them to receive subsequent calls and follow the instructions. During the recorded calls, they were asked to record their choice for the current post.
Patil has already held rounds of meetings with key leaders from the city over the past two months as part of the process of appointment of the new city chief and to understand the problems the unit facing. The decision is being taken in the view of strengthening the party’s base ahead of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections scheduled to be held in 2022.
Patil said that the new Mumbai president will be elected by the end of December 2020 and the city unit will be in election mode by January. However, the exercise led to unexpected goof-ups as some of the calls went to the former block presidents who have already quit the party.
Records state that former state ministers Suresh Shetty and Arif Naseem Khan, and senior leaders Bhai Jagtap, Karan Singh Chapra and Amarjeet Singh Manhas are among the frontrunners for the post of Mumbai Congress president. The Congress’ city unit is currently headed by Eknath Gaikwad, who has been the acting president after Milind Deora quit more than a year ago.
Share
Tweet
