Gurudas Kamat

Congress general secretary Gurudas Kamat, who had openly revolted against the party's Mumbai unit chief Sanjay Nirupam, on Monday said he had reconsidered the decision and was willing to campaign for the civic elections in Mumbai. "Over a thousand party workers including candidates from Mumbai North West, North East and South Central (constituencies) appealed to me to campaign for them. In view of the appeal, I have decided to withdraw the earlier decision not to campaign. I will campaign for all candidates in Mumbai North West and elsewhere, wherever I am called," he told PTI.

Kamat, former MP from Mumbai North West, however alleged that selection of candidates took place in a shoddy manner. "I have taken the decision to campaign in the interest of
the party and since Mumbai has to be ridden of the Shiv Sena-BJP combine which is ruling the civic body for more than two decades," he said. The state of affairs at the Mumbai civic body was bad and it was infested with corruption, he said. A fortnight ago, Kamat had announced he was withdrawing from the candidate selection process as well as the campaign, blaming Nirupam's style of functioning. Kamat also targeted Congress general secretary in charge of Maharashtra Mohan Prakash.

Some other senior leaders from Mumbai too decided to stay away from the campaign launch yesterday, miffed with Nirupam's style of functioning. Former minister Mohammed Arif Naseem Khan, former city Congress chiefs Janardan Chandurkar, Kripashankar Singh and senior leader Narayan Rane said they will campaign for other municipal corporations and zilla parishads in Maharashtra but not in Mumbai.