Mumbai: After all that internal bickering, senior Congress leaders from the party seem to have fallen in line. Sources from the party revealed that a strongly worded message sent by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi did the needful.
It may be recalled that several senior Congress leaders like Gurudas Kamat, Narayan Rane and Nasim Khan among others were unhappy with Congress city president Sanjay Nirupam’s style of working.
However, those who had threatened to boycott the Congress’ campaign in Mumbai could be seen on ground after Mr Gandhi allegedly asked them to ‘work together’. Consequently, the warring leaders have scheduled their campaigns in city for the remaining days.
Mr Kamat is campaigning in his Lok sabha constituency North West for last three days. Earlier he had rescued himself from party work due to differences with Mr Nirupam. But now Mr Kamat is going door to door in wards located in this area. Mr Rane too has scheduled his rallies in Andheri to campaign for Congress candidates. Earlier, Mr Rane had said that he would not get into the city campaign, taunting Mr Nirupam, ‘Being able enough to navigate the party in the city”.
Sources told this newspaper that Mr Gandhi asked Congress leaders to get into the campaign mode with an assurance that he would look into their complaints against Mr Nirupam after the BMC polls. A close aide of Mr Gandhi had called Mr Kamat to convey Mr Gandhi’s message. Later Mr Kamat reasoned his participation in campaign saying his workers requested him to lead the campaign.
The Mumbai Congress has recently witnessed ugly infighting. Mr Kamat wanted his share in ticket distribution but Mr Nirupam asserted his rights as Mumbai chief while finalising party candidates. An upset Mr Kamat complained to the Congress high command. Similarly, Mr Rane wanted to have an alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) but Mr Nirupam insisted on contesting independently. Taking note of this internal rift, the Congress high command had sent Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda as an emissary but in vain. Finally Mr Gandhi sent a stern warning to the warring senior leaders to fall in line.
