Tighten belts, no room for laxity in polls: Congress top brass drills into Maha leadership

Quaid Najmi

Mumbai/New Delhi, Oct 14 (IANS) After the embarrassment faced in the recent Haryana Assembly elections, the Congress top leadership has cautioned Maharashtra leaders against any kind of complacency or cockiness in the upcoming state Assembly elections, party sources said on Monday. 

Congress President and Leader of Opposition (Rajya Sabha) Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition (Lok Sabha), besides AICC General Secretary K.C. Venugopal had summoned senior Maharashtra leaders for urgent confabulations to the national capital on Monday.

They included state party chief Nana F. Patole, Mumbai unit chief and MP Varsha Gaikwad, Leader of Opposition (Assembly) Vijay Wadettiwar, Congress Legislature Party Leader Balasaheb Thorat and ex-CM Prithviraj Chavan, and all returned to Mumbai this afternoon for the Congress Parliamentary Board meeting scheduled later on Monday.

Party sources here said that among the topics discussed were the Congress Manifesto and the combined pronouncement of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)-India block comprising Nationalist Congress Party (SP)-Shiv Sena (UBT) and other smaller allies.

Besides, the status of the seat-sharing formula among the big and small allies for the elections, the challenges posed by the ruling MahaYuti alliance, the pros and cons bedevilling both sides, etc, are also said to have figured in the tough deliberations held at Kharge's home.

The discussions assume significance with the Election Commission of India (ECI) slated to sound the bugle for the polls to the 288-member Maharashtra assembly shortly.

Both Kharge and Rahul Gandhi have apparently conveyed in a no-nonsense manner to the state leaders on the need to remain united, cooperate with allies to vanquish the MahaYuti, shun airs of overconfidence and ensure victory, without citing Haryana where the Congress missed the opportunity to unseat BJP by a few close whiskers.

On its part, the state delegation apprised the Central leadership on the prevalent caste-community permutations and combinations, the impact of the Maratha-OBC upheavals on the polls, and the potential vote-divisions with multiple groupings likely to enter the fray.

The state law-and-order situation, the insecurities among minorities, the blatant killings of ex-Congress Minister and ruling ally Nationalist Congress Party's Baba Ziauddin Siddique and earlier SS-UBT leader Abhishek Ghosalkar during a Facebook Live interaction, plus other incidents that have shaken the people of the state cropped up.

In 2024, Maharashtra is stepping into 15th Assembly polls after a tumultuous five-year tenure that witnessed the break-down of two major parties – Shiv Sena and Shiv Sena (UBT), Nationalist Congress Party and NCP (SP).

There were unprecedented three CMs in the state, comprising an 80-hour-long two-man regime of CM Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, followed by MVA's CM Uddhav Thackeray with Ajit Pawar as Deputy CM, then the toppling game of June 2022 that saw CM Eknath Shinde with Deputy CM Fadnavis and a year later even Ajit Pawar as the Deputy CM for a record 6th time.

After a decent performance in the Lok Sabha polls when it bagged a total of 31 (of 48) seats, the MVA has been exuding supreme confidence of a repeat show in the Assembly polls.

The elections would see a multitude of parties in the fray – the three main allies each of the MahaYuti and MVA plus their smaller partners, the upcoming groupings of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) led by Prakash Ambedkar, the Marathas contemplating to enter the contests and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena of Raj Thackeray.

Besides, there will be other smaller parties in some local pockets, not to mention potential rebels from all parties, the host of independents and others who are likely to crowd the poll scene, and serve to split votes.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: [email protected])