Desertions, belligerent allies undo Congress
MUMBAI: The Congress tricolour should be flying high in Maharashtra as the principal challenger and alternative to the BJP. With an all-maharashtra presence and with its allies Shiv Sena and the NCP riven by splits, the Congress should be the driving force in the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi. But that’s not how things have turned out.
The state Congress president has come across as weak and ineffective. The party is seeing a series of desertions by senior leaders. Its allies have treated the grand old party shabbily; and the party’s high command may well turn a blind eye to it.
Addressing the opening session of the two-day training camp of Maharashtra t wo months ago, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had said: “We are going through a difficult situation at present.” The problems in the state unit have only added to the difficulties.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) has unilaterally declared Chandrahar Patil and Anil Desai as its candidates for Sangli and Mumbai South Central constituencies, while the NCP (SP) has declared Suresh Mhatra as its candidate from Bhiwandi though the Congress had staked a strong claim to all the three seats. NCP is likely to contest 10 seats. State Congress leaders have been left complaining but the allies are in no mood to relent, aware they are that they can browbeat the party.
The state Congress unit has requested the central party leadership to intervene and speak to Thackeray and Pawar to reconsider their decision. But party insiders say the central leadership is keener on ensuring there is no repeat of West Bengal and Bihar in Maharashtra than taking a strong stand.
Senior Congress leaders are convinced that both Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) have a tacit agreement to isolate the Congress inside the MVA. “Both the allies have created a perception that they are working to appoint a Congress-led prime minister and thus we need them more,” said a senior party leader, adding that a section in the party is pitching for a friendly fight in the disputed seats to prove a point.
Congress insiders say that there is much resentment among the rank and file and some of them hold Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole responsible for the situation. They are of the view that he did not negotiate well and failed to get the desired number of seats for the party. As if to dispel this impression, Patole has been openly critical of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP). “It is unacceptable to declare candidates on seats unilaterally instead of making consensus among allies,” he said, adding he expects the central leadership to intervene.
The Congress has been allocated only 17 seats out of 48 in the state. Shiv Sena (UBT) has already declared candidates for 21 seats and is likely to contest Mumbai North too since the Congress is not keen on the BJP stronghold. This would leave the Congress with only one seat in Mumbai – a city where the party was founded in 1885.
Meanwhile, Sanjay Nirupam’s exit was only the latest in a series of recent desertions that has included Milind Deora, Baba Siddique and Ashok Chavan. And there is talk that more from the loyal old guard will jump ship in the coming days. Nirupam, a leader with a standing in the north Indian community, was peeved that the Congress did not fight to get Mumbai North West for him.
Will Maharashtra go the Uttar Pradesh way for the Congress? Election statistics show that the party’s voteshare has declined from 19.61% in 1009 to 18.29% in 2014 and 16.41% in 2019. In 2019, the Congress won just one Lok Sabha in the state. The tally of forty-four seats in the assembly elections was the party’s poorest performance in many decades.
Yet, the Congress continues to have a presence in all the 288 seats in the state. It has three times as many MLAS as the Shiv Sena (UBT) with its 15 MLAS and the NCP (SP) with 13 MLAS. “No serious efforts are being made to arrest the slide in Maharashtra. There is no constituency-wise plan to revive the party and get the cadre ready for the elections. Everything is ad-hoc,” said a legislator from central Maharashtra.