The search has begun for a new Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) city unit chief.
Among the frontrunners for the post are party spokersperson Prakash Binsale, former group leader in the BMC Ravindra Pawar, MP from north-east constituency Sanjay Patil and north-east district president Vilas Mane.
In review meeting held on Friday at the NCP headquarters in Nariman Point, most of the leaders blamed city unit chief Narendra Varma for the party’s debacle in the recently held civic elections.
After the polls, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, state head of the party Madhukar Pichad had held meetings with the office-bearers of various districts to take stock of the results.
The office-bearers from Mumbai had criticised Varma’s leadership and demanded a change of the guard. A few workers had also demanded that the new leader be either from Konkan or Mumbai.
The selection of the new city unit chief will be initiated during the organisational elections to be held next month.
City leaders had also blamed the system of distribution of the tickets to candidates for the party’s bad show in the civic polls.
A senior party leader, who attended the review meeting, said that though Varma was being held responsible for the defeat, he had very little say in deciding the candidates for the Mumbai civic elections.
“Most of the key city leaders were busy ensuring tickets for their kin. This worked against us as the public voting against the dynastic politics. Varma alone cannot be held responsible for the defeat in Mumbai,” he added.
Pawar has reportedly told the party representatives in BMC to become aggressive on the floor so that NCP strengthens its roots ahead of the 2014 state assembly elections.
