Pune: Congress MLA Hiraman Khoskar met NCP (SCP) chief Sharad Pawar in Pune on Sunday to urge him to convince the Congress to renominate him from Igatpuri assembly seat in the tribal area of Nashik district . Khoskar is one of the seven Congress MLAs in the eye of the storm over cross-voting during the MLC poll in July this year. The cross-voting had resulted in the loss of MVA ally and Peasants and Workers Party of India (PWPI)'s sitting MLC Jayant Patil who was backed by NCP (SCP).
Although Congress has not publicly named any MLA behind the cross-voting, the party's leadership had said that MLAs were identified, and action would be taken against them. Khoskar told reporters after meeting Pawar at his residence that despite several meetings with the state Congress leadership, the party has not promised him a renomination and this prompted him to seek Pawar's help. "I was not involved in cross-voting during the MLC election, but I was unnecessarily blamed for it.
I explained my side of the story to Sharad Pawar and requested him to urge Nana Patole and Balasaheb Thorat to give me a ticket from the Congress to contest the assembly election," he said. Khoskar added that he, along with the other MLAs, was directed to vote for Milind Narvekar in the MLC elections, and they followed the orders, but they are being blamed for cross-voting. Earlier on Friday, he was among the seven party aspirants from Igatpuri interviewed by Congress state working committee president Kunal Patil in .