In this connection, senior Congress leaders from the district have lodged a protest and complaint with the All India Congress Committee (AICC) and the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) seeking action against the erring leader who preferred the jailed candidate.
The MPCC had given the A/B form to Adi Irani, the party's official candidate, to contest elections from a ward in Dahanu town. The form was cleared by the MPCC and was to be given by the district rural Congress president Damoo Shingada, according to sources at district headquarters.
However, Congress leader and state cabinet minister Rajendra Gavit is alleged to have given the A/B form to Bharat Rajput, the Congress candidate currently in jail and whose name was not cleared by the party.
Talking to PTI here late tonight, Shingada said that minister Gavit had resorted to anti-party activities and defied party directives in three such cases.
Shingada said that the Congress would suffer a major blow in the Dahanu civic elections due to such ongoing anti-party activities, besides the onslaught by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
He said that he had lodged a complaint in this connection seeking action against Gavit with the AICC, MPCC, the Maharashtra Congress in-charge Mohan Prakash and minister in-charge for the district, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil.
Due to such problems within the party, the chief minister and MPCC chief decided not to canvas for the Congress in Dahanu, a senior party functionary told PTI.