Congress was warned of Nashik seat problems: NCP leader Ajit Pawar  

Sources say MVA partners likely to meet on Wednesday to iron out coordination problems, after NCP’s Ajit Pawar accuses Congress of failing to act on Nashik seat fiasco despite advance warning

After a fiasco in the Nashik graduates constituency seat for the upcoming Maharashtra Legislative Council polls left the State Congress red-faced, Maharashtra Leader of Opposition (LoP) and senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar on Tuesday said that he had intimated senior Congress leaders of the impending ‘rebellion’ of the Tambe family, but that the party did not act upon his advice.

The Congress’ chosen candidate for the Nashik seat, three-time MLC Sudhir Tambe, had withdrawn his nomination in defiance of the party high command. Instead, his son, Satyajeet Tambe— a former Maharashtra Youth Congress president— had announced his candidature as an independent, while stating that he would seek the support of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“I had knowledge that such an incident may happen. Accordingly, I had brought it to the attention of senior Congress leaders and urged them to take care. I had urged them to fill a dummy form in order to prevent this controversy, but they did not take any action,” said Mr. Pawar, speaking to reporters in Mumbai.

At the same, Mr. Pawar denied suggestions of any schisms within the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance and said that the three coalition parties -- NCP, Congress and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena -- were working to improve coordination between them in the future.

“This situation has been created after Dr. Sudhir Tambe suddenly decided not to file despite being approved as his party’s official candidate… We [MVA] partners have always planned out the seat-sharing arrangement in advance. The reason behind Dr. Tambe’s refusal can only be clarified by him. There was no reason for any discussion [regarding the Nashik seat] given that Dr. Tambe had already represented Nashik thrice before,” Mr. Pawar said.

Mr. Pawar also refuted suggestions of poor coordination both within the MVA and within the State Congress unit. He stressed that the matter was an internal affair of the Congress and that there was no need to assume any problems within the MVA as a result of the incident. “The BJP has now got an opportunity to jump on the MVA after the Nashik issue. Hence, they will say anything now. There is no need to take them seriously,” Mr. Pawar said.

Despite his comments, sources said that a meeting at Mr. Pawar’s Mumbai residence is scheduled on Wednesday in which Congress and Thackeray Sena leaders are expected to participate. The meeting has been called to iron out coordination problems within the MVA, sources said.