Mahadik said that basically he was a Congressman and appealed to all Congress leaders in Kolhapur to strive to strengthen the party. He also assured to use all his resources to ensure the victory of party candidates in parliamentary and assembly seats in the district.

Former minister Vilas Deshmukh, speaking on the occasion, said he and some other Congressmen were accused of supplying independent MLAs for the formation of the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance and added that the independent ministers had now opted to go along with Nationalist Congress Party led by Sharad Pawar. He said that if these independent MLAs had his backing, they would have joined the Congress.