Congress promised equal treatment Equal seat-sharing for next 12 vacancies

With Congress agreeing to withdraw its second candidate, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is all set to be elected unopposed to the legislative council election. By announcing a second candidate, Congress had sent a message to Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to not take it for granted. After both parties assured to treat Congress as an equal partner, the latter agreed to withdraw its second candidate.

“The reason for Congress fielding a second candidate was to express our expression of displeasure over the functioning of Shiv Sena and NCP in the government. Congress ministers and leaders were not taken into confidence during the key decision making process. Uddhav Thackeray held a meeting with NCP chief Sharad Pawar. However, Congress ministers were not invited. Now both parties agreed that in the future everything will be distributed equally. Congress will not receive anything less just because our strength is less than Shiv Sena and NCP. Our aim to give a message was fulfilled,” a senior leader of Congress party told FPJ.

“Even a few decisions taken by Congress ministers were cancelled. For example, Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Vijay Wadettiwar decided to deploy ST buses to drop stranded people in the state to their native places. But Uddhav Thackeray reversed this decision without consulting or informing Wadettiwar. After a few days, the same decision was taken by Shiv Sena’s Anil Parab, which means they want Congress to not take credit for good decisions. Public Health Minister Rajesh Tope visited Dharavi, which is the constituency of Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad. But he did not inform or take her along. Both Thackeray and NCP are taking Congress as granted, which we will not tolerate,” said another Congress leader.

“Since there is the COVID-19 crisis, CM Thackeray requested us to avoid elections. Though we could have won six seats, we respected his request,” Ashok Chavan, who was present in the meeting of MVA, told FPJ.

In June, 12 seats of the legislative council from the governor’s quota will be vacant. As these 12 seats are filled from the governor quota, there will be no election. Therefore, ruling parties will get all the 12 seats. Both Shiv Sena and NCP have agreed to distribute these seats equally, which means all three parties will get four seats each. Monday, being the last day to file nomination for the nine vacant seats of the legislative council, Thackeray along with his family will file it. BJP has already filed the nomination of its four candidates. On Saturday, Congress announced a second candidate for this election, taking the tally of the Maha Vikas Aghadi to six. This created a panic in Shiv Sena camp. As Uddhav Thackeray was worried about his early election to the legislative Council, he was against fielding six candidates, as this would have necessitated election of the council. In the last 24 hours, Thackeray twice requested Congress to withdraw its second candidate. He reportedly threatened not to contest the election, but Congress was still firm on fielding its second candidate. The meeting of the MVA leaders took place at Sahyadri Guest House on Sunday evening, where Congress agreed after both Shiv Sena and NCP promised to treat it equally.

-Pramod Chunchuwar