Ashok Chavan upset over candidates for Lok Sabha

Mumbai: Maharashtra Congress found itself in an extremely embarrassing position as an audio tape has gone viral in which the party state chief Ashok Chavan has purportedly expressed his displeasure over the selection of party candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls. He has also dropped hints of quitting the post over the Chandrapur Lok Sabha seat row.

An audiotape of a conversation between Mr Chavan and a party worker, who identified himself as Rajurkar, has gone viral.

In the audiotape, the state Congress chief expressed displeasure over the selection of the candidate to contest from the Chandrapur Lok Sabha seat and said that no one in the Congress party have been listening to him regarding the matter.

Mr Chavan said that he had to field Vinayak Bagde from the Chandrapur seat as no one was listening to him and he is planning to quit from the state chief position. “I tried to explain too. I am also planning to resign,” he purportedly heard saying in the audiotape.

According to reports, the former chief minister is upset with the Lok Sabha ticket distribution in Maharashtra. The incident has put the Congress on the back foot.

Mr Chavan, however, tried to downplay the reports, saying that it was a personal conversation between two workers of the party.

“It was a personal conversation between two people. The party’s decision is final. Though we have not been able to satisfy all the Congress workers but the party’s decision is final,” Mr Chavan said.

“There have been complaints about the Chandrapur seat. I don’t want to discuss internal matter of the party in  public,” Mr Chavan added.