Congress alliance in Gondia ZP discomforts BJP

Mumbai: An alliance with Congress in the Bhandara-Gondia district for elections to the posts of zilla parishad president and vice-president has disturbed many state leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said sources.

Though none of them have taken the matter to the party’s upper echelons, the alliance is being animatedly discussed by several people in the state unit. Gondia will go for Lok Sabha by-poll very soon as Nana Patole had resigned from there, after levelling serious allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He had later joined the Congress. In his district, if the Bhartiya Janata Party supports Congress for the upcoming elections, it is likely to send out wrong signals in the state, said senior party leaders.

Previously, during the Gondia zilla parishad chairman election, the BJP had supported Congress’s Seema Madavi and in return, its Hamit Akbar Ali was elected the deputy chairman.

This alliance was made to keep the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) out of the power.

Though this helped the BJP strengthen its position in the district, the senior leadership of the party is reportedly against this ‘unholy’ alliance.

“We keep talking about Congress Mukta Bharat. And when the time comes, we share power with them? How will we be to convince the votes of this alliance?” asked a senior BJP leader on the condition of anonymity.

A senior minister in chief minister Devendra Fadnavis government raised a politically important question.

He said, “Nana Patole had resigned after levelling allegations against the Bharatiya Janata Party. He had then joined Congress.

Now, if we support Congress here, on what moral ground will we take on the Congress in the coming polls?”

Congress president Rahul Gandhi had asked the state Congress to submit a report on this alliance.

Observers believe that national Bhartiya Janata Party won’t go so far and will try to underplay the issue. However, repercussions of the alliance will be seen on state level in coming days.