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Nana Patole says he is ready to be Congress CM face in Maharashtra

Patole had said Congress will be going solo in all local elections, Assembly polls

nana patole (File) Nana Patole

A day after Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole created a stir when he said the party would contest the next Assembly polls in the state separately, the veteran farmers leader on Monday said he was ready to be the party's chief ministerial candidate.

The Congress is one of the constituents of the coalition government in Maharashtra, along with the Shiv Sena and NCP. There have been reports the Congress has been unhappy with its profile in the coalition government.

Patole was quoted by ANI as saying, "Congress will contest the Maharashtra Assembly elections alone. I am ready to be the CM face if the high command decides."

On Sunday, Patole had said at a Congress event in Amravati "I am the Congress chief of state. So, I will give the point of view of my party. I don't know what he (NCP chief Sharad Pawar) said but Congress has made it very clear that we will be going solo in all local body elections and Assembly polls. Don't you want to see Nana Patole made CM?" Republic reported.

Shiv Sena spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi had responded to Patole's comments in Amravati. She told Times Now, "Moving forward, what decisions are taken in terms of state elections is a decision that is for their party to take and their party leadership to take. As far as Maharashtra government is concerned, we [Shiv Sena] will continue being in an alliance and continue to serve the people of Maharashtra.”

Patole was made head of the Maharashtra Congress in February this year. Patole had quit the Congress around a decade ago, complaining that the then Congress-NCP government in the state was not paying heed to the concerns of the farmers. He was elected to the Lok Sabha on a BJP ticket in 2014 from the Bhandara-Gondiya constituency. Waving a banner of revolt against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Patole quit the BJP and contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as a Congress candidate. Pitted against BJP bigwig Nitin Gadkari in Nagpur, he lost the election.

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