From Caste to Class in Maharashtra

February 20, 1971 From Caste to Class in Maharashtra G P Deshpande THE Congress in Maharashtra is a remarkably strong and healthy organisation. One is struck by the almost monolithic unity of the MPCC and the continuity of its leadership. The Chavan-Naik-Patil troika of the MPCC seems to be doing very well, A few discordant voices are occasionally heard, only to be silenced before long. The split in the National Congress in 1969 did catch the MPCC unawares, as it were, but it did not break it. Although it voted for Sanjiva Reddy for the presidency, it soon made up its mind and decided to throw in its lot with Jagjivan Ram's Congress, It is a measure of the solidarity of the MPCC that Nijaliugappa's Congress had to fall back on such leaders as Naik- Nimbalkar who had quarrelled with the MPCC way back in 1966 and had suffered for it. The MPCC further demonstrated its strength and unity in a camp it organised in Bombay. The camp expressed MPCC's full support to Indira Gandhi's socialism, of course, as interpreted by Chavan, Naik and Vasantrao Patil.