Mumbai: Days after the general election results were announced, Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole remarked that the party, after its impressive performance in the state, had become the “big brother” in the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance.
Patole’s statement irked both leaders within his party as well as those in the alliance.
But within weeks, the MVA alliance seems to have worked out a way to have an “equal partnership” formula for the upcoming assembly election, most likely to be held in October or November this year.
Out of the 30 seats won by the MVA in the recent parliamentary elections, the Congress alone managed to win 13 seats in the state.
Patole’s remark was an outcome of the party’s performance under his leadership. However, the statement led to discontent, with the All India Congress Committee’s state unit in-charge Ramesh Chennithala snubbing Patole for his statement.
The recent decision to contest an equal number of seats in the state, many leaders in the Congress say, was to send out a message that no one is “big” or “small” in the equation.
In the 288-member assembly, each party will now contest from 96 seats. Each of these individual parties is expected to accommodate their smaller allies in the state.
According to a report in the New Indian Express, Patole said that since the Congress emerged as the single largest party in the state, with 13 Lok Sabha MPs and one independent MP, it had a legitimate right to contest more seats than its allies in the assembly elections.
However, the party was ready to adjust by a few seats for the MVA’s larger interests, he was cited as saying.
The three parties successfully coordinated and campaigned together in the general election, with senior political leaders across parties campaigning state-wide for MVA candidates.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut, who was earlier miffed by Patole’s statement, claimed that although the Congress and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) bagged more seats in the election, it was Uddhav Thackeray who emerged as the face of the MVA in the elections.
The MVA’s seat-sharing announcement has come over four months before the assembly elections. While the MVA is sending out a message that the alliance is strong and will take on the BJP and its allies head-on, the latter is yet to set its house in order.
The Mahayuti, comprising the BJP and its two allies – the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP – is still debating the three parties’ seat shares and whether they will stick together for the upcoming assembly election.
