Mumbai: In a major setback for the Congress in Maharashtra ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan resigned from the party on Monday.
The senior leader of the Congress, through a letter to the party’s Maharashtra unit chief Nana Patole, announced his resignation from the party’s primary membership.
Besides this, Chavan also resigned as MLA from the Maharashtra Assembly.
The former chief minister’s resignation from the Congress comes ahead of the upcoming elections to six Rajya Sabha seats in Maharashtra. The last date of filing nominations is February 15. The elections are scheduled to take place on February 27.
“I met the Speaker and resigned from the Assembly’s membership as I was elected as an MLA from the Congress party. I have also resigned from the Congress Working Committee and party’s primary membership,” Chavan told reporters in Mumbai.
He categorically said he has not taken any decision to join any party.
In response to another question about his decision to quit the party, Chavan said, “I have no complaints. It is not in my nature to complain about anyone. This is my individual decision. I will take my own time to make my decision.”
“I have not talked to any Congress MLA, this is not my intention,” he further said.
Notably, Chavan is the third leader from the Congress who severed ties from the party in Maharashtra after Milind Deora and Baba Siddique ahead of the general elections.
Meanwhile, Congress general general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh took a veiled attack on Chavan and said, “When friends and colleagues leave a political party that has given them much, perhaps much more than they deserved, it is always a matter of anguish. But to those who are vulnerable, that washing machine will always prove more attractive than ideological commitment or personal loyalties.”
“These betrayers do not realise that their exit opens up vast new opportunities to those whose growth they have always stunted,” he wrote on X.
Agencies