Former Congress MLA Ashok Dhawad quits party

Nagpur, May 10 (UNI) Senior Congress leader and former MLA from Nagpur Ashok Dhawad today resigned from the party.

Announcing his resignation at a press conference here today, Mr Dhawad, who represented Nagpur South Assembly constituency twice, said he had decided to resign from the party because of the humiliation meted to him.

He alleged that Union Minister of State for Non-Conventional Energy Resources Vilas Muttemwar, who is also the MP from Nagpur, treated him like a ''personal enemy'' and had even tried to ''harm him physically and mentally''.

Mr Muttemwar has turned the Congress into a ''private limited company'' in Nagpur which was causing irrepairable damage to the party, he charged. ''When my name was proposed unanimously for the post of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president, it was Mr Muttemwar who scuttled it, Mr Dhawad said.

He, however, did not say which party he would now join.

''I will join the party that has ideologies that match mine,'' he said while adding that he had held discussions with NCP president Sharad Pawar.

Mr Dhawad has sent his four-page resignation letter to MPCC chief Prabha Rau, with copies to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, General Secretary In Charge of Maharashtra Margaret Alva and Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.

UNI NNG MAZ SB PM2223