Gurudas Kamat withdraws selection of candidates due to the 'negative' attitude of Sanjay Nirupam

Last week when Congress kicked off its BMC election campaign with a street play outside the MRCC office at CST several senior leaders chose to give it a missThis Friday a text message from senior leader and former Union minister Gurudas Kamat to his party members sent the Congress into a tizzy All applicants for municipal corporation tickets are requested to contact their local MLA candidates and district Congress president to get the party nomination as I have withdrawn from the entire exercise of selection of candidates and campaign due to the negative attitude of Mr Sanjay Nirupam Mumbai Congress President the message readThe partyrsquos January 17 protest outside the Reserve Bank of India headquarters in Fort would have been a noshow had Sanjay Nirupam not intervened and requested leaders to make it to the eventWith corporation elections barely a month away Kamats illtimed declaration said party insiders has come as a major blow to the Congress Kamat has significant support from most of the sitting corporators 56 in the civic body and his exit could hit the morale of the partyIn another incident on January 17 before the Congressrsquo scheduled protest against demonetisation at the Reserve Bank of Indias head office in Fort city president Nirupam was busy trying to convince leaders from the Chandivli and Kalina assembly constituency to postpone their meetings mdash happening at the same time mdash so that maximum number of partymen joined the morcha Finally after exchange of several calls with party leaders the meeting was postponed and Congress saved itself a poor show at the morchaThe two incidents are the most recent examples of the ongoing camp wars among senior party leaders While the party says that it is ready for the BMC elections mdash scheduled on February 21 mdash the warring leaders have left the party with no significant leader to follow The question is whether Congress will rise from the internal fights which have battered its politics Many think notCampdriven partyWhile Nirupam has been appointed as the partyrsquos city president Congress is divided into several camps Supporters of former MPs and MLAs like Gurudas Kamat Priya Dutt Milind Deora Narayan Rane and Kripashankar Singh refuse to toe the line of the party high commandIncidentally this is not the first time that Kamat has taken such a step In June 2016 Kamat had declared retirement from politics after he did not receive a Rajya Sabha nomination He was also unhappy with the partyrsquos choice of Nirupam as head said party sources However within two weeks Kamat took back his resignation and joined the party againIn November 2016 Bhomsingh Rathore a former senior Congress leader had quit to join Shiv Sena because of factionalism in the party If you met one leader the other would get upset I did not want this to affect my political careerrdquo Rathore had said then When midday reached out to Rathore he declined to commentDisunited we standLast week Congress kicked off its BMC election campaign by organising a street play outside Mumbai Regional Congress Committeersquos MRCC office at CST However the talking point among party workers attending the event was the absence of senior leaders Former MPs Kamat and Dutt former state minister Kripashankar Singh and sitting MLA from Chandivli Naseem Khan mdash who are the faces of the party in the city mdash were missing from the dais Only Deora Eknath Gaikwad and a few other leaders accompanied NirupamExplaining the current scenario a senior party leader who did not wish to be named said ldquoMost of the senior leaders are showing least interest in the election activities Only leaders who are close to Nirupam have a say in party activities This has irked many leaders and they decided not to get involved in the electionrdquoNirupam Controversyrsquos childAfter taking over as city president in 2014 following Congressrsquo humiliating loss in the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections Nirupam made several attempts to rejuvenate the party with his aggressivestyle of functioningWithin a year of taking charge Nirupam removed twotime corporator Devendra Amberkar from the Opposition leaderrsquos post in the BMC and made Pravin Chheda new party leader Amberkar is said to be close to Kamat and is now facing uncertainty over tickets Now Nirupamrsquos close aide MLA Aslam Shaikh has been appointed as observer for the electionNirupam has been cause for concern for a while nowIn December 2015 he came under fire for projecting former PM Jawaharlal Nehru as a villain on the Jammu and Kashmir issue in the party mouthpiece Congress Darshan Nirupam managed to save his seat after Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhi accepted his apology In October last year Nirupam was criticised for his comment on the Surgical Strike Sept 29 against Pakistan In his tweet he had questioned the BJP action At the time top Congress leadership distanced itself from the commentAIMIM rise is Congress lossEven as Congress is dealing with internal fights the rise of the AIMIM has also come as a potential threat to the partyrsquos Muslim vote bank Earlier only Samajwadi Party ate into Congressrsquo Muslim votes but now AIMIM could affect the partyrsquos stronghold in areas like Kurla Malvani Byculla Mohammad Ali Road and Behrampada