Congress Meeting In Mumbai Without Patole, To Mollify Balasaheb Thorat

All India Congress Committee’s Maharashtra in-charge H K Patil is scheduled to visit Mumbai on Sunday (Feb 12) in a bid to end the feud kicked up by the angry missive of legislative party leader Balasaheb Thorat to complain against state congress president Nana Patole. The meeting of top leadership will be marked by the absence of Patole, who is at the centre of the bickering within the party. Thorat is convinced that Patole played a political game to corner and defame him over the legislative council election in which ‘independent’ Satyajeet Tambe trounced the ‘official’ Maha Vikas Aghadi candidate by a massive margin. Patole repeatedly indicated that Thorat had engineered the plan. The fact that Thorat and Tambe are close relatives had given a different colour to the infighting, culminating in Thorat’s resignation. Given Thorat’s long association with the party, the high command has decided to rush Patil to mollify the warring factions. Thorat has already sent out feelers that he has not ‘resigned’ his post but has merely ‘complained’ to express his displeasure. Given his loyalty, the high command has asked Patole to remain away from the crucial meet, party leaders feel. Patole has declared that he would be busy with the campaigning for the two assembly byelections from Pune later this month and hence not present in Mumbai on Sunday.