The seething discontent within the Maharashtra Congress over the party high command’s nomination of Urdu poet Imran Pratapgarhi as its Rajya Sabha candidate boiled over with Nagpur Congress leader Ashish Deshmukh announcing his resignation from the post of the Maharashtra Congress’ general secretary.
“Despite Maharashtra having enough capable leaders who can deliver results for the Congress, an outsider from Uttar Pradesh, Imran Pratapgarhi. has been thrust upon us. It is in condemnation of this decision that I am tendering my resignation as party general secretary,” Mr. Deshmukh said.
An upset Mr. Deshmukh, himself an aspirant for the Rajya Sabha ticket, dismissed Mr. Pratapgarhi as a “lightweight” and “political non-entity” who had lost his deposit in the 2019 general election to the Samajwadi Party’s S.T. Hasan.
