Cross-voting accused Cong MLAs downplay CM meet

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Jitesh Antapurkar and Hiraman Khoskar, Congress MLAs from Deglur in Nanded district and Igatpuri, respectively, played down their recent meeting with chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
“I met the chief minister Eknath Shinde to discuss farmers’ issues in my jurisdiction. My constituency had witnessed floods last year, and many farmers are still deprived of the govt compensation,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
Antapurkar and Khosarkar met the CM on Tuesday fuelling speculations that both could leave Congress.
Both are among seven Congress MLAs who are accused of cross-voting during the recently held MLC polls in Maharashtra. MLA Mohan Hambarde from Nanded South is also among the accused MLAs. While Hambarde denied charges of cross-voting, Antapurkar remained silent.
Notably, Congress state chief Nana Patole recently said that action against “traitor” MLAs would be taken at the time of distribution of tickets for the upcoming assembly polls.
Antapurkar, who won the bypoll for the Deglur assembly seat in Nov 2021 (necessitated in the wake of his father and sitting MLA Raosaheb Antapurkar’s death due to post-Covid complications) is considered close to Ashok Chavan, who had left Congress to join BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha election.
Meanwhile, Igatpuri Congress MLA Hiraman Khoskar said he met the chief minister to discuss development projects in his constituency. “I also met deputy CM Ajit Pawar, recently, on the same issue. I do not have any plans to quit Congress,” he said.