Mumbai, 1 Mar 
The Congress has appointed four-time MLA Amin Patel as the party's deputy leader in the Maharashtra legislative assembly and Amit Deshmukh as its chief whip.

The party, in a statement, said Vishwanath Kadam has been appointed as the secretary of the party's assembly group, while Shirish Naik and Sanjay Meshram will be whips.

Patel, a senior leader of the Mumbai Congress, is a four-time MLA from the Mumbadevi constituency.

The Congress is down to 16 legislators, its worst-ever tally in the state legislative assembly.

The party has appointed Satej Patil as the group leader in the state legislative council and has made Abhijit Vanjari the chief whip and Rajesh Rathod as the whip.

The party has eight MLCs.

Congress has already named Vijay Wadettiwar as the legislative party leader.

The three-week budget session of the Maharashtra assembly begins on March 3.