Thakre Shunted, Gudadhe Is City Cong President

Nagpur: After 13 years of shrinking electoral influence, repeated civic poll defeats and growing internal factionalism, the Congress high command has finally pressed the reset button in Nagpur by replacing Vikas Thakre with Praful Gudadhe as the new city president. Gudadhe had twice contested against chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in the politically crucial South-West Nagpur Assembly constituency in 2014 and 2024, but lost.The decision, announced under the party's ‘Sangathan Srujan Abhiyan' on Wednesday, comes at a time when Congress is struggling to remain politically relevant in a city, which was once its traditional bastion. Thakre, who was appointed city president in 2012, presided over one of the party's weakest and most turbulent phases in Nagpur politics.Under his leadership, Congress suffered defeats in three consecutive Nagpur Municipal Corporation elections — 2012, 2017 and now 2026 — while its organisational strength steadily weakened. The decline was not limited to civic politics alone. The party's assembly poll performance also dipped sharply, even as factionalism within the city unit intensified.After the NMC general body was dissolved in March 2022 and an administrator ruled the civic body for nearly four years, Congress thought it had a big opportunity to regain lost political ground. Anti-incumbency against BJP, civic dissatisfaction and prolonged administrative control was expected to work in the Opposition's favour. However, Congress failed to convert public discontent into electoral gains.Instead, internal resentment deepened ahead of civic polls. Thakre reportedly denied tickets to several senior sitting corporators, including Ramesh Punekar, Manoj Sangole and Sandip Sahare, triggering resentment at the grassroots and widening rift in the city unit.Senior Congressmen repeatedly raised concerns over weak booth-level management, poor coordination and absence of aggressive mobilisation. Many in the party privately admitted Congress failed to build a strong urban structure over the last decade, allowing BJP to tighten its grip on Nagpur.Appointment of Gudadhe is now being viewed as an attempt by Congress to inject fresh energy into a demoralised organisation. A former corporator and current AICC national secretary, Gudadhe handled key organisational posts outside Maharashtra and was also in-charge of Haryana assembly polls.Considered a close aide of former MLA Sunil Kedar, Gudadhe is expected to revisit disciplinary actions taken against senior partymen and former corporators, including Narendra Jichkar.Political observers believe Gudadhe faces an uphill task. Beyond rebuilding the organisation, he will also have to bridge factional divides, revive cadre morale and reconnect Congress with urban voters who have steadily drifted away over the past decade.Talking to TOI, Gudadhe said he would work collectively with party workers and leaders to strengthen the organisation across the city.For Congress, however, changing the city chief may be the easy part. Reversing more than a decade of political decline in Nagpur remains the real challenge.