Lack of coordination in Pune Congress campaign?

The Congress workers in Pune have been complaining about lack of coordination within the party for the Lok Sabha campaign with the conspicuous absence of key leaders.

They alleged that Ravindra Dhangekar, the party’s candidate for Pune constituency, is seen only with selected leaders. City unit president Arvind Shinde and some other office-bearers not attending the recent meeting with Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) founder Sharad Pawar was also pointed out by the supporters.

Workers claim that the announcement of the Pune candidate may have dented the tall ego of some leaders.

Denying poor coordination or ego issues related to poll campaign, Shinde said, “We are working for the party and there is no issue within the party cadre. I am organising various meets and attended one at Parvati meeting on Tuesday. We are arranging assembly constituency wise meetings and various cells have been activated to reach out to residents. As it is wrong to keep the candidate busy in such meetings, it has been decided that the representative will hold public meets and give speeches while we do the other poll campaign works.”

Another Congress leader Mohan Joshi said, “For us, the party comes first. We are united. We have also held two-three meetings with Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance partners.”

Meanwhile, some party workers on condition of anonymity, said, “The unity of Congress is not seen on the ground. Supporters are dispirited with many key leaders not seen together in campaign of the national party that is known for its democratic values.”

On Shinde’s absence at the meeting with Pawar, Joshi said, “We got Pawar’s appointment at the last moment. We tried to contact the party city unit president, but his mobile was not reachable. Hence, we met the veteran leader.”