Varsha Gaikwad replaces Bhai Jagtap
Varsha Gaikwad replaces
Bhai Jagtap
Varsha Gaikwad becomes 1st woman chief of Mumbai Congress, replaces Bhai Jagtap ahead of civic polls
Gaikwad faces tough challenge with BMC, LS, assembly polls likely to happen one after another. Mumbai MLAs were unhappy with Jagtap’s interference in their constituencies, it is learnt.
With the Mumbai Civic Body Election in the corner, and in a new development, Congress
substituted its Mumbai Chief Bhai Jagtap with Varsha Gaikwad, the first woman to be appointed to the position.
Jagtap had been associated as President of the Mumbai Congress since December 2020. Whereas, Varsha Gaikwad, an MLA from Dharavi, is the Dalit face of the party. Her father Eknath Gaikwad was Chief of the Mumbai Congress Party.
Taking to her twitter handle, she made the announcement on Friday night of her appointment adding that this can only happen in the Congress, the party which continues to nurture Mahamanav, Bharat Ratna Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s dream of a progressive, inclusive India.
It’s an emotional moment for her to set her foot into the very position once held by her father.
She thanked the Congress President Kharge ji, Sonia Gandhi, RahulGandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and the entire Congress family for making an ordinary Congress worker’s daughter, a Dalit woman as the President of the Mumbai Congress.
Varsha Gaikwad ventured into her political journey from Dharavi in 2004 and has been a four-time MLA from there. She had also been a minister in the previous Congress-NCP government in 2009 and the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in 2019.
A professor of mathematics at the Siddharth College of Arts, Science and Commerce in Mumbai, Varsha was the school education minister in the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government. She also held portfolios of MoS medical education, higher and technical education in 2009 under CM Ashok Chavan. She was later given the charge of women and child development as well.
As of now, Varsha faces a tough challenge with Lok Sabha, assembly and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections likely to take place within the span of a year. She is one of the only four MLAs of the party out of 36 constituencies in Mumbai. Reportedly, the party currently doesn’t have any MP from the financial capital.
As soource from Congress, Jagtap’s troubles began when he defeated Chandrakant Handore, the Congress’ first choice, in the Maharashtra Legislative Council election in June 2022. His replacement process was delayed following the fall of MVA government,
According to senior Congress leader requesting anonymity the high command had taken note of Handore’s defeat. This went against him. The fact that our first-choice leader was defeated and Jagtap, who was our second choice, got elected sent a wrong message.
Sources within the Congress, Mumbai MLAs, including Gaikwad, were also unhappy with Jagtap’s interference in their constituencies and demanded his removal.
Jagtap also had a public spat with Bandra (East) MLA Zeeshan Siddique, who wrote to the then party president Sonia Gandhi about Jagtap’s alleged use of foul language and “ill-treatment” during a public protest in November 2021.
Another MLA, who did not wish to be named, told ThePrint, “It seems like he was running a private company. He does not involve any of us and work on his own. It won’t work like that.”
After getting into an alliance with the undivided Shiv Sena in 2019, the party is said to be unsure about whether to contest alone or with Shiv Sena for the BMC polls. The BMC has been under state-appointed administrator’s rule since March 2022.
In 2021, Jagtap announced that the Congress would go solo and contest all the seats in BMC without any tie-up. However, after the split in the Shiv Sena and the fall of the MVA government, the Congress is still undecided on the alliance.
News input KV Raman
