Nana Patole steps down as Maharashtra Congress chief following poll drubbing

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole stepped down from the post after the drubbing the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi took in the Assembly polls results for which were declared on Saturday.Nana Patole himself barely managed to scrape through winning by a narrow margin of 208 votes against his rival and BJP candidate Avinash Brahmankarin the Sakoli assembly constituency.According to the NDTV, Patole, a former MP, took charge of Maharashtra Congress in 2021 when he replaced Balasaheb Thorat. Under his leadership, the Congress posted a stunning performance in the Lok Sabha election earlier this year, winning 13 out of 17 seats it contested. Scoring the highest among all Maha Vikas Aghadi allies, the Congress under Mr Patole bargained hard during seat-sharing talks ahead of the Assembly election. This led to friction between Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharad Pawar). At one point, there were reports that Team Thackeray had refused to hold seat-sharing talks if Mr Patole was involved.Even two days before election results, Patole’s claim that the Maha Vikas Aghadi government formed after the election would be led by the Congress irked Team Thackeray leader Sanjay Raut, who said he would not accept this.The BJP-led Mahayuti registered a comprehensive win in the Maharashtra elections, securing 235 seats leaving the MVA far behind at 49 seats in the recently concluded Assembly polls.



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