Congress Intervenes in Chandrapur Mayor Dispute, Reaches Consensus on Selection

After days of infighting between two groups in the Congress, the central leadership has finally intervened to reach a consensus on selecting the mayor in Chandrapur Municipal Corporation. As per the directions issued by the central leadership of the party, Congress’s Chandrapur Lok Sabha MP is set to have a final word on deciding the mayor while the deputy mayor’s post will be given to the corporators belonging to Congress legislative party leader Vijay Wadettiwar’s group. Another party supporting the Congress to pass the majority mark will be given the standing committee chairperson’s post. Following the meeting, sources within the Congress confirmed that a solution has been reached. “It has been decided that the post of mayor in Chandrapur will be given to the Dhanorkar group, while the deputy mayor post will go to the Vijay Wadettiwar group. Additionally, the role of house leader in the municipal corporation has been assigned to the Wadettiwar group. It was also decided that the post of chairperson of the Standing Committee would be given to the party that extends support to the Congress,” said a senior party leader. In Chandrapur, Congress still requires four more corporators to reach a majority. Currently, Thackeray’s Shiv Sena holds six seats, while the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi has two. Consequently, the responsibility of mobilising the remaining four corporators rests with Pratibha Dhanorkar. For the past two weeks, the groups of Dhanorkar and Wadettiwar had locked horns over the mayoral post. The infighting was so intense that the corporators belonging to the Dhanorkar group carried out registration as an independent group. Maharashtra Congress chief Harshvardhan Sapkal held four meetings with both the leaders to reach a consensus. Despite that, the infighting continued, forcing the central leadership to intervene. On Tuesday, Wadettiwar had taken his group of corporators to Delhi and held a meeting with K C Venugopal, general secretary, organisation. State Congress observer and former MLA Sunil Kedar accompanied them along with Wadettiwar. Kedar later held a meeting with Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Arvind Sawant, after which Sawant announced the party’s decision to support Congress in Chandrapur. “There is no question of supporting anyone else. The Congress and us will be together in Chandrapur and Parbhani,” said Sawant.