Congress Holds Emergency Meeting To Resolve Chandrapur Civic Body Rift

Mumbai: Amid internal differences emerging within the Congress over the formation of a body in the Chandrapur Municipal Corporation (CMC), the Maharashtra Congress leadership on Saturday held an urgent meeting and attempted to resolve the issue. It was decided that the Congress group leader will be appointed by state president Harshwardhan Sapkal, while MP Pratibha Dhanorkar and legislature party leader Vijay Wadettiwar will decide the mayoral post and Standing Committee chairperson, respectively. The decision came in the backdrop of 13 of the 27 Congress corporators breaking away to form a separate faction on Friday. Mr Wadettiwar also made an allegation against the BJP for poaching the corporators to form the body in the CMC by offering Rs one crore. In the recently concluded CMC election, the Congress emerged as the single largest party with 27 seats in the 66-member civic body, where 34 seats are required for a majority. The BJP, with 23 seats, became the second-largest party. The Shiv Sena (UBT) won six seats, while the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena secured one seat. The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) also won one seat each, while the remaining tw