The working committee of Mumbai Regional Congress Committee today put up a united face with most of the prominent city leaders attending it.
This was the second meeting of the working committee after Sanjay Nirupam took charge as the city unit chief.
Congress general secretary Gurudas Kamat, former MPs Priya Dutt, Eknath Gaikwad, and several former MLAs attended the meeting. Former MP Milind Deora, however, was absent.
Congress general secretary Mohan Prakash, who addressed the meeting, stressed the need for unity and asked the city unit to take up a mass contact programme.
“We need to be aggressive against the state government and the Shiv Sena-BJP-run civic administration,” he said.
Kamat’s presence was significant as it followed the patch-up between him and Nirupam effected by AICC Vice President Rahul Gandhi last month.
The elections to the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai will take place in February 2017.
In the past, Kamat, who was upset with Nirupam’s style of functioning, had slammed him for allegedly threatening municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta over eviction of hawkers.
Kamat had issued a statement saying violence was not a part of the Congress’s tradition.
Kamat also encouraged the party’s frontal organisations to stage a massive protest rally in front of city BJP president Ashish Shelar’s house, a day after Nirupam had led a march to Hutatma chowk here to protest suspension of 25 Congress MPs from the Parliament.
This tug-of-war continued even on the birth anniversary of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on August 20 this year when Kamat supporters did not participate in the ‘Sadbhavana Rally’ organised by Nirupam.
Kamat and his loyalists paid tributes to Gandhi much before Nirupam arrived, and left without waiting for the city Congress chief.
