Nana Patole to take oath as new Maharashtra Congress chief on Feb 12

The Newly-appointed President of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) Nana Patole, along with the newly-appointed working presidents and vice presidents, will take over the post at the historic August Kranti Maidan on February 12.

In the presence of Congress party's Maharashtra in-charge HK Patil, former state president and revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat will hand over the post to Nana Patole.

In a statement issued, party leader Mohan Joshi said that in 1942, Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi had started the decisive struggle for independence with the slogan 'Let the British leave India' from the August Revolution Ground or Kranti Maidan in Mumbai.

The event will be attended by all senior state leaders of Congress, party Ministers in the State Cabinet, Secretary of the All India Congress Committee and co-incharge of Maharashtra Ashish Dua, Congress MLAs and office-bearers, including Sandeep, Vamshi Reddy, Sampat Kumar and Sonal Patel, Mr Joshi added.

A day after Nana Patole resigned from the post of Maharashtra Assembly Speaker, he was appointed as the President of the state Congress unit on Friday, February 5.

Patole, the MLA from Sakoli in Bhandara district, has replaced revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat as state Congress president. The Congress shares power with the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra. Along with Patole, six working presidents and 10 vice presidents have also been appointed.

The working presidents include Solapur MLAs Praniti Shinde, Shivajirao Moghe, Chandrakant Handore, Basavaraj Patil, Kunal Patil and Naseem Khan. Shirish Chaudhary, Ramesh Bagwe, Hussain Dalwai, Mohan Joshi, Ranjit Kamble, Kailash Gorantyal, BI Nagarale, Sharad Aher, Manikrao Jagtap, MPM Sheikh has been appointed.

Ten vice presidents of the state unit, including former Rajya Sabha member Hussain Dalwai, were also appointed. The party also set up a Parliamentary Board in the state with 37 members, a Strategy, Screening and Coordination Committee for the upcoming local bodies elections.