Former MLA beaten up at Cong meet

During the meeting,party members from Purandar taluka unit argued about bogus party membership given to some of the workers. This led to supporters of Sanjay Jagtap,son of MLC Chandukaka Jagtap,and Kunjir exchanging blows. Efforts to control the workers went in vain and Kunjir got injured on his head after being hit by a chair.

The party observers adjourned the meeting for a while to bring the brawl to an end.

Kunjir said,“The attack on me was planned by a faction of the party with support of veteran Congress leader Anantrao Thopte. I am not going to complain about the incident to anyone though.”

He said the party was encouraging members with criminal background to take over the party reins and today’s incident depicted the danger in allowing entry to such men as they didn’t shy away from using muscle power in Congress Bhavan.

Kunjir and Jagtap did not take part in the election process that restarted later in the afternoon when incumbent district Congress president Devidas Bhansali was re-elected unopposed to the post.

Bhansali said Jagtap was officially a member of the Congress party and had all rights to attend the meeting while the same could not be said about Kunjir.

“The Congress has a difficult political situation in the district as it has to compete with the alliance partner NCP rather than only the opposition parties. Despite this,we have been able to maintain the presence of the party in the district and also increase the members,” Bhansali said.

He said 97 out of 127 members who attended the meeting supported him for the district president.

Thopte rejected the allegation that he encouraged Jagtap to attack Kunjir.

“I tried to stop the fight and even helped Kunjir leave the Bhavan once the fight broke out,” he said.

Party observer Babasaheb Dhabekar who was one of the two party seniors who presided over the election said,“I don’t know who all were engaged in the fight. The incident was unfortunate; I will soon submit a report to the state unit chief.”

The person in charge of the election process,Marutrao Kumbhalkar said,“I will probe the incident where some non-members of the district executive committee made it to the meeting and even share the dais.”