Nana Patole Denies Stepping Down, Likely To Meet Kharge, Rahul Gandhi Over Poll Debacle

Maharashtra Election Results: Nana Patole, Maharashtra Congress Chief refuted all the reports claiming he resigned as state Congress chief following the party’s poor performance in Maharashtra assembly elections.  “I am going to meet Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, I have not given my resignation,” said Nana Patole. 

Patole further claimed that the results had been rigged. “There has been a rig in the elections. All of our leaders were in the election field. Our party workers were also there with all their power. Everyone was hopeful that the election results would be in the favour of Maha Vikas Aghadi. For example, our candidate for Nanded Lok Sabha by-election won but all our Vidhan Sabha candidates lost,” 

“How can there be so much of a difference? The people on social media are also saying this. This is our biggest concern. That is why I came to meet our national president Mallikarjun Kharge. We are also worried because we are getting phone calls from all over the state. People are saying that this is wrong and it is not good for a democracy,” Patole added.

In the 288–seat Maharashtra Assembly elections, the Congress party, led by Nana Patole, and its alliance, the Maha Vikas Aghadi, suffered a heavy defeat against the BJP -led Mahayuti. Congress won only 16 seats despite contesting more than 100. 

Nana Patole managed to avoid complete embarrassment by narrowly winning in the Sakoli assembly constituency. He defeated BJP candidate Avinash Brahmankar by just 208 votes. 
Patole received 96,795 votes, while Brahmankar got 96,587. An independent candidate, Somadatta Karanjekar, was far behind with 18,309 votes.