- News>
- Maharashtra
`Issue of graft behind Cong loss in civic polls`
The issue of corruption led to the defeat of Cong in Mumbai Municipal elections, CM Prithviraj Chavan is believed to have told Cong high command.
New Delhi: The issue of corruption and scams
at the national level led to the defeat of Congress in the
Mumbai Municipal Corporation elections, Maharashtra Chief
Minister Prithviraj Chavan is believed to have told the party
high command on Saturday.
Chavan, who had a meeting with party chief Sonia Gandhi, underlined the fact that the 2G scam, the Commonwealth Games mess and such other scandals linked the party with corruption in popular mind, especially among youth, sources said. The Chief Minister, they said, told the Central leadership that the land allotment controversy allegedly involving former Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh too figured in the mind of a section of the electorate.
With the scams and scandals dominating the media for the past one year, the young voter who constituted a sizable lot among the electorate, got especially influenced, party sources said.
The Congress had undertaken a post-poll survey in the megapolis and these were among its findings. Shivsena-BJP-RPI alliance trounced the Congress-NCP combine in the civic polls which were described as a fight between the NDA and the UPA by the Chief Minister.
After the polls, the AICC had rejected suggestions of resignation of the Chief Minister who had strongly advocated for tieup with NCP to oust BJP-Shivsena from power in Mumbai Municipal Corporation.
Senior Maharashtra Minister Narayan Rane also had a seperate meeting with Gandhi.
The sources said Union Ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh and Rajeev Shukla are almost set to be renominated by the party as its nominees for the Rajya Sabha biennial elections scheduled next month. A section in the state unit are opposing a second term for Shukla contending that ?utsiders` should not be nominated. Shukla hails from Uttar Pradesh.
PTI
Chavan, who had a meeting with party chief Sonia Gandhi, underlined the fact that the 2G scam, the Commonwealth Games mess and such other scandals linked the party with corruption in popular mind, especially among youth, sources said. The Chief Minister, they said, told the Central leadership that the land allotment controversy allegedly involving former Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh too figured in the mind of a section of the electorate.
With the scams and scandals dominating the media for the past one year, the young voter who constituted a sizable lot among the electorate, got especially influenced, party sources said.
The Congress had undertaken a post-poll survey in the megapolis and these were among its findings. Shivsena-BJP-RPI alliance trounced the Congress-NCP combine in the civic polls which were described as a fight between the NDA and the UPA by the Chief Minister.
After the polls, the AICC had rejected suggestions of resignation of the Chief Minister who had strongly advocated for tieup with NCP to oust BJP-Shivsena from power in Mumbai Municipal Corporation.
Senior Maharashtra Minister Narayan Rane also had a seperate meeting with Gandhi.
The sources said Union Ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh and Rajeev Shukla are almost set to be renominated by the party as its nominees for the Rajya Sabha biennial elections scheduled next month. A section in the state unit are opposing a second term for Shukla contending that ?utsiders` should not be nominated. Shukla hails from Uttar Pradesh.
PTI