Sonia rejects demand for Chavan's removal

Asks ministers and leaders to put up united show to regain lost ground at Assembly polls

Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday, rejected demands made by some Maharashtra ministers and leaders for Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan’s removal, in the wake of the Congress’ defeat in the Lok Sabha polls.

Gandhi indicated she was not ready for any new experiment such as bringing in a new leader ahead of elections to the 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, slated for September-October.

By expressing her faith and confidence in Chavan’s leadership, the Congress president has snubbed aspirants for the chief minister’s post including industries minister Narayan Rane, forest minister Patangrao Kadam and co-operatives minister Harshvardhan Patil. Sonia, who did not entertain Rane, Kadam and others on Wednesday, instead, asked them to stop complaining about Chavan and work as a team to regain lost ground.

Incidentally, Chavan also received tacit support from Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi. On top of it,  the ‘there-is-no-alternative’ factor came to the rescue of Chavan, who now faces the challenge of leading the divided party and at the same time, taking on the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance which is currently riding high on the ‘Modi Wave’. “Time is very short. What is required is quick decisions and their implementation on the ground.

Further, the government and the Congress party organisation will have launch aggressive campaigning about the various development works carried out and more importantly, how the government was quick enough to announce and deliver aid packages to natural calamity-hit farmers in particular,” a Congress minister told Business Standard.

The minister said the government would have to take key decisions such as reservation in jobs and education for Marathas and Muslims, implementation of the Housing Regulator Act, curbing attacks on Dalits and effectively countering Naxal attacks.

Further, the government would have to sanction pending irrigation and road projects and release funds for them.

Another minister said the state government should quickly put in place a Maharashtra ‘growth model’ and market it through print and electronic media. As reported by Business Standard, Accenture has been assigned the job to prepare the state growth model after taking inputs from all government departments. “The objective should be to project Maharashtra’s pre-eminence and its leadership in various fields. A vote for Congress would be a vote for development should be Team Chavan’s poll plank,” the minister added.