Maharashtra: Unfortunate if Thorat has resigned as Congress legislature party chief, says Ashok Chavan

It would be unfortunate if Balasaheb Thorat has resigned from his post of Maharashtra Congress legislature party chief, said his party colleague and former chief minister Ashok Chavan on Tuesday.

Chavan was speaking to reporters in Jalna where he had gone to attend a wedding in the family of Congress MLA Kailas Gorantyal.

“After coming here (Jalna), I learnt about reports on the resignation of Balasaheb Thorat. He is a senior and a leader of great patience. But commenting more on this without knowing the issue will not be appropriate,” said Chavan.

“I had a word with him this morning and wished him on his birthday. But at that time, I knew nothing about this issue,” he added.

Thorat on Tuesday resigned as the state legislature party head, a day after his letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge over friction with state unit chief Nana Patole came out, party sources said earlier.

The Congress leader, who represents the Sangamner constituency in Ahmednagar district, has sent his resignation to the party high command, said the sources Thorat is the maternal uncle of Satyajit Tambe who recently won the Legislative Council election from the Nashik division graduates constituency as an independent candidate.

An aide of Thorat had earlier said that he had written to the Congress central leadership citing his inability to work with Patole due to the latter’s "anger" towards him. Thorat also said he was not being consulted before decisions were being taken, the aide added.

However, Patole said he had no idea about Thorat’s move to resign from the post of Congress legislature party chief.

Speaking to reporters in Mumbai, Patole said, “I have not received any resignation letter from Thorat. He has not been speaking to us for the past few days. Maybe he is talking to the media.” Another senior Congress leader and former chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde also said he had no knowledge of Thorat’s resignation from the post.