Maratha or OBC: Congress to choose Maharashtra President

New Delhi, Jan 8 : The Congress is trying to zero in on a probable replacement for Balasaheb Thorat to lead the party in Maharashtra.
The party is taking feedback from important leaders through a recorded message by party in- charge of the state HK Patil. He has adopted the same method to appoint the Mumbai President.
Maharashtra Congress President Balasaheb Thorat is also a minister in the MVA government led by Uddhav Thackeray in which the Congress is a partner.
Thorat has said, “I have told the party that if someone is there to replace me I am ready to resign the post as I have been holding many posts.” Sources say that Congress leader Nana Patole, who is the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker, is the front runner followed by Vijay Wadettiwar, Amit Deshmukh and Rajiv Satav.
Both Nana Patole and Rajiv Satav are OBC and close to Rahul Gandhi. Satav is state in-charge of Gujarat and Patole is Speaker of the asembly and if the Congress appoints Nana Patole as President then it has to name a new person for the post. In this scenario the race will again heat up in the state.