Maharashtra: Nana Patole resigns as state Congress chief after poll debacle
The Congress won only 16 seats out of the 103 it contested, and Patole himself managed to win in Sakoli with a margin of just 208 votes
The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in Maharashtra witnessed its first casualty after its massive defeat in the recently-concluded assembly elections in the state as Nana Patole resigned as the state Congress chief.
The Congress won only 16 seats out of the 103 it contested, and Patole himself managed to win in Sakoli with a margin of just 208 votes.
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Patole replaced Balasaheb Thorat in 2021 as the Maharashtra Congress president and led the party to an amazing performance in the Lok Sabha polls this year, winning 13 out of the 17 seats it contested in Maharashtra. Based on its performance in the general elections, Patole negotiated for a higher number of seats for the Congress in the MVA for the assembly elections.
Cause of friction during seat-sharing talks
His strong bargaining led to friction among the three partners in the alliance, and it led to a point where the Shiv Sena (UBT) refused to continue with the seat-sharing talks if Patole was involved.
A couple of days before the election results, Patole made a remark that the MVA government that would be formed would be led by the Congress, to which the Sena leader Sanjay Raut took exception.
Also Read: Maharashtra rout warning bell for Congress to buck up or sink into oblivion
Patole’s reign as the Congress president for Maharashtra however ended with a whimper as the party experienced its worst-ever result in the state with its tally dropping from 44 in the previous Assembly to 16 in the present one.
