Osmanabad, July 15: The Congress in Maharashtra today said it wants to ally with RPI leader Ramdas Athawale for the forthcoming Assembly polls.
Addressing a press conference here, Maharashtra PCC President Manikrao Thakre said Congress needs the prominent Dalit leader as an alliance partner.
“We gave him Lok Sabha ticket but unfortunately he was defeated,” he said. Athawale, who heads the largest RPI faction, was the Congress-NCP-RPI candidate from the Shirdi Lok Sabha seat.
Thakre was speaking to reporters after a meeting of the party workers organised as part of his ”Sampark Abhiyan” (contact programme), undertaken ahead of the Assembly polls. “Our Sampark Abhiyan is not for pressurising NCP for getting more seats to contest in the Assembly elections.
” He declined to answer a query related to the murder case of Pawanraje Nimbalkar, in which NCP MP Padmasinh Patil has been arrested, saying the matter is sub-judice. Thakre said there will be no change in the portfolios of Congress Ministers in the state”s Democratic Front Government before the Assembly elections, likely in September- October.
-PTI