Maha Cong faces uphill battle in polls despite alliance gains

A SENIOR MAHA CONGRESS LEADER STRESSED THAT THE PARTY IS “HOPEFUL OF WINING THE EIGHT SEATS THIS TIME

Congress has managed to get 17 of 48 seats in Maharashtra for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, as an alliance partner of Shiv Sena (UBT) and Nationalist Congress Party (SP) for the first time. In 2019, of these 17 seats the party was the first runner up on 12 seats and managed a single win to the then Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruling combine. It did not contest from three seats. ( See box for margin of losses in 2019.)

The party is confident about winning Kolhapur, Chandrapur, Solapur, Latur, Ramtek, Amravati, Gadchiroli-Chimur and Mumbai North Central.

A senior Congress leader stressed that the party is “hopeful of wining the eight seats this time” adding, “there are also a few seats where we are in a tough fight”. Expanding on the thought, the leader said the party has tried to “put up the right candidates at the right spots considering caste equations and anti- incumbency”.

“We have even chosen young faces who have the ability to appeal to the youth such as Praniti Shinde from Solapur, Gowaal Padavi from Nandurbar and Pratibha Dhanorkar from Chandrapur,” pointed out another Congress leader.

From Kolhapur, the party has fielded Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj, the 12th descendant of Shivaji Maharaj – it is a sound strategy considering the way the Maratha reservation issue shook up the state’s politics for over six months.

Yet, the party is unlikely to enjoy a smooth ride, regardless of the support of Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar, who will make good of the sympathy wave surrounding them.

State Congress general secretary Sachin Sawant however said, this time Maharashtra would be a game changer. “It will pave the way for the defeat of the Narendra Modi-led government. There is a lot of anger among people who are waiting to vote the BJP out of power. They have been denied the right to exercise their right of voting for many years now,” said Sawant.

Congress did not contest on three seats in 2019 as it had then fought the elections in alliance with the undivided NCP. NCP contested BhandaraGondia and Kolhapur constituencies and all the opposition parties extended their support to independent candidate Navneet Rana in Amravati, who won the seat against Shiv Sena’s Anandrao Adsul in a tough contest. She won the polls with 36,951 votes; Adsul secured 4.73 lakh votes. NCP also failed to register victory in Kolhapur and Bhandara-Gondia constituencies.

“Things have changed since 2019, as we now have the support of two parties — Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) -- which will help us consolidate the anti- BJP votes. More importantly, Vanchit Bahujan Agahdi (VBA) has lost its charisma; it is also apparent that the party is directly helping BJP,” said another Congress leader.

However, even as the party is optimistic, it is reeling from its own internal challenges as a series of senior leaders have exited the party. Former chief minister Ashok Chavan switched over to BJP last month while former MP Sanjay Nirupam left the party after Congress failed to get the Mumbai North West constituency from where the latter was looking to contest.

Earlier, other senior leaders such as Milind Deora and Baba Siddique also deserted the party in a span of two months. There is a fear that more leaders may shift their loyalty in the coming months. The exodus has affected the morale of the rank and file in the state. Nationally, the party has the second highest number of Lok Sabha seats after Uttar Pradesh’s 80 seats.

Congress’s national performance has not been encouraging either given dwindling numbers in every Lok Sabha and assembly polls. In the last three general elections, the voting percentage of the party has come down by close to four percent.

In 2009, 19.61% votes were polled for the party in the state, it was 18.29% in 2014 which further reduced to 16.41% in 2019 polls, states the report released by the election commission.

Moreover in 2019, Congress had won just one seat in Lok Sabha and 44 seats in the last assembly elections, which was the party’s lowest performance in the last several decades.