Putting an end to all the speculations, the All India Congress Committee named on Friday Nana Patole as the president of the state Congress unit. The announcement came a day after Patole resigned from his post as Maharashtra Assembly Speaker.
The 57-year-old Patole, MLA from Sakoli in Bhandara district, has replaced revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat as state Congress president. The Congress shares power with the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra.
Meanwhile, Patole’s resignation as the assembly speaker created a rift among the MVA partners on who will be the new speaker. While Thorat took the view that a Congress nominee will be the new speaker, the architect of the MVA, NCP president Sharad Pawar said a discussion on the matter was essential. “We will discuss and then take a decision,” Pawar said. Patole declined to comment on Pawar’s suggestion, saying he was a senior leader of the alliance
