Congress leaders seek removal of Mumbai unit chief Varsha Gaikwad

Mumbai: As many as 16 senior leaders of the Mumbai Congress have demanded that its city unit chief Varsha Gaikwad be replaced so as to strengthen the organisation ahead of the Maharashtra assembly polls due in October this year.

They feel that Gaikwad, who recently won the Mumbai North Central Lok Sabha seat, will not have time to work at the organisational level and have objected to her style of functioning, sources said on Monday.

These leaders, in a letter dated June 16, have sought time from the Congress leadership to discuss rejuvenation of the party in Mumbai ahead of the assembly elections, and the Mumbai civic polls which are overdue.

Signatories of the letter include Rajya Sabha MP and Congress Working Committee member Chandrakant Handore, former city party chiefs Janardhan Chandurkar and Bhai Jagtap, senior leaders Naseem Khan, Suresh Shetty, Madhu Chavan, Charansingh Sapra, Zakir Ahmed and Maharashtra Congress treasurer Amarjit Manhas.

Most of these leaders have reached Delhi to meet Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leaders KC Venugopal and Rahul Gandhi to discuss how to strengthen the party in the city, the sources said.

A meeting related to Maharashtra is scheduled tomorrow.

"Recently, at a protest in connection with the UGC-NET exam chaos, Gaikwad did not call all party leaders at the city unit office.

Hence, they had to stage a separate protest in suburbs," a source claimed.

"It is now 13 months she is the city unit head, but she has not spearheaded any substantial activity to galvanize the party cadre," the source further claimed.

Mumbai North Lok Sabha seat's Congress candidate Bhushan Patil has also claimed he received no help from the city party unit.

"Patil has also complained that he did not get a lead in the Malad assembly segment (in the Lok Sabha poll) held by Congress MLA Aslam Sheikh," the source said.

In the 2019 Maharashtra assembly polls, the Congress won only 4 of the 36 seats in Mumbai.

During the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections, the Congress bagged 1 of the 2 seats it contested in the city.