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Chastised Priya Dutt falls in line
Within days of expressing serious displeasure over the denial of party tickets to her supporters, city Congress MP Priya Dutt has come around to campaign for her party in civic wards falling under her Mumbai north-central constituency, in the run-up to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) poll.
In apparent fallout of a stern advice that she received from her central Congress leadership not to precipitate matters ahead of the crucial BMC poll, a somewhat chastened Dutt has, since Saturday evening, gone headlong into the party’s electioneering in all 38 civic wards coming under constituency.
Though she will not campaign individually in eight such Wards that her party has allotted to its ally NCP, Dutt will be address joint rallies for the Congress-NCP-RPI (Gavai faction) alliance for all those wards as well.
Her grievance that the city party had not taken her into confidence in the distribution of party tickets and that some of her supporters were denied tickets notwithstanding, Dutt formally launched the Congress-NCP-RPI(Gavai) campaign in Vile Parle, Mumbai on Saturday evening.
Six party candidates were present were present at the rally. She also inaugurated the offices of three women Congress candidates ****al Sutar,. Renuka Karale and Binita Vora.
Dutt also launched a Music CD in Marathi and Hindi specially conceptualised by her close associate and Congress MLA from Vile Parle Krishna Hegde for the Congress campaign for the BMC poll, scheduled for February 16.
“Priyaji has been campaigning intensely for the party since last evening. During the last 24 hours, she has addressed eight elections, including a Congress-NCP-RPI (G) combine rally,” Hegde told The Pioneer on Sunday evening.
On Thursday last when hundreds of her supporters had staged a demonstration in front of her Bandra office against Mumbai Regional Congress Committee president Kripashankar Singh, Dutt had hit out at Singh, saying that she had not been taken into confidence in the distribution of tickets and that some of her supporters had been denied tickets.
“You have chosen to insult a Member of Parliament like me in a manner you have done. Please do not involve me in the process of distribution of party tickets,” Dutt had told Singh, through media.
Simultaneously, Dutt had also complained to Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel about the manner in which she had been “sidelined” in the distribution of city party tickets for the BMC poll - an allegation that was contested later on record by Congress general secretary in-charge of Maharashtra affairs Mohan Prakash.
Given that Dutt has a clean image and is popular among her constituents, Patel, Prakash and Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan are believed to have advised her not make an issue of the denial of tickets to her supporters, but to campaign extensively for the Congress candidates in the BMC poll.
While the general perception is that she is upset with the denial of tickets to just three of her supporters, sources close to say that she had an issue with party candidates chosen by Singh in at least 14 Wards.
Singh is understood to have spoken to Dutt and sought to bury the hatchet between them. “Things have been sorted out. There is no need to make this a big issue. Sometimes, there are differences in a family also,” Singh told media persons here.
On his part, Hegde refused to go into details as to what had prompted Dutt to conduct herself as if nothing had gone wrong. “The main objective before us is to dislodge the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance from the BMC. That’s why Priyaji is working hard for the purpose,” Hegde said.
Hegde, however, confirmed that the Chief Minister had called him and made enquiries about the ongoing campaign.
Within days of expressing serious displeasure over the denial of party tickets to her supporters, city Congress MP Priya Dutt has come around to campaign for her party in civic wards falling under her Mumbai north-central constituency, in the run-up to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) poll.
In apparent fallout of a stern advice that she received from her central Congress leadership not to precipitate matters ahead of the crucial BMC poll, a somewhat chastened Dutt has, since Saturday evening, gone headlong into the party’s electioneering in all 38 civic wards coming under constituency.
Though she will not campaign individually in eight such Wards that her party has allotted to its ally NCP, Dutt will be address joint rallies for the Congress-NCP-RPI (Gavai faction) alliance for all those wards as well.
Her grievance that the city party had not taken her into confidence in the distribution of party tickets and that some of her supporters were denied tickets notwithstanding, Dutt formally launched the Congress-NCP-RPI(Gavai) campaign in Vile Parle, Mumbai on Saturday evening.
Six party candidates were present were present at the rally. She also inaugurated the offices of three women Congress candidates ****al Sutar,. Renuka Karale and Binita Vora.
Dutt also launched a Music CD in Marathi and Hindi specially conceptualised by her close associate and Congress MLA from Vile Parle Krishna Hegde for the Congress campaign for the BMC poll, scheduled for February 16.
“Priyaji has been campaigning intensely for the party since last evening. During the last 24 hours, she has addressed eight elections, including a Congress-NCP-RPI (G) combine rally,” Hegde told The Pioneer on Sunday evening.
On Thursday last when hundreds of her supporters had staged a demonstration in front of her Bandra office against Mumbai Regional Congress Committee president Kripashankar Singh, Dutt had hit out at Singh, saying that she had not been taken into confidence in the distribution of tickets and that some of her supporters had been denied tickets.
“You have chosen to insult a Member of Parliament like me in a manner you have done. Please do not involve me in the process of distribution of party tickets,” Dutt had told Singh, through media.
Simultaneously, Dutt had also complained to Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel about the manner in which she had been “sidelined” in the distribution of city party tickets for the BMC poll - an allegation that was contested later on record by Congress general secretary in-charge of Maharashtra affairs Mohan Prakash.
Given that Dutt has a clean image and is popular among her constituents, Patel, Prakash and Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan are believed to have advised her not make an issue of the denial of tickets to her supporters, but to campaign extensively for the Congress candidates in the BMC poll.
While the general perception is that she is upset with the denial of tickets to just three of her supporters, sources close to say that she had an issue with party candidates chosen by Singh in at least 14 Wards.
Singh is understood to have spoken to Dutt and sought to bury the hatchet between them. “Things have been sorted out. There is no need to make this a big issue. Sometimes, there are differences in a family also,” Singh told media persons here.
On his part, Hegde refused to go into details as to what had prompted Dutt to conduct herself as if nothing had gone wrong. “The main objective before us is to dislodge the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance from the BMC. That’s why Priyaji is working hard for the purpose,” Hegde said.
Hegde, however, confirmed that the Chief Minister had called him and made enquiries about the ongoing campaign.
