Congress ready to contest all 227 seats alone, claims Patole

No formal announcement as Congress is sharing power with Shiv Sena & NCP

Days after he took over as the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president, Nana Patole, on Tuesday, said the party is all geared up to contest the elections alone to the India’s richest civic body, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

"A meeting of the Congress party was held to decide the strategy regarding the BMC elections. The party held discussions on strengthening the organisation in each ward. Congress is ready to fight for all the 227 seats of the corporation on its own, said Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee President Nana Patole," a party officer bearer said. However, Patole restrained from making a formal announcement on going solo, as the Congress party is sharing power with Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

Patole has shown restraint, as a section of the Congress party along with Shiv Sena and NCP are in favour of contesting elections together in a serious bid to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) while strongly countering its MissionMumbai 2022. Earlier, newly appointed Mumbai Regional Congress Committee president Bhai Jagtap had said, as the city unit chief, he was of the firm opinion that the Congress should contest all the 227 seats in the BMC. However, Shiv Sena Member of the Parliament (MP) Sanjay Raut had said the MVA would contest the BMC elections together. “MVA will fight the civic polls in Maharashtra's capital and will win it. In Mumbai, who else but Shiv Sena can win? MVA is here to stay permanently,” Raut had said.

At today’s meeting, the Congress leaders also discussed the loopholes in the structuring of the wards. They had alleged that demarcation or redrawing of ward boundaries ahead of the 2017 civic polls were done to favour the BJP and had demanded fresh delimitation.

Patole said that SC, ST, and women candidates do not get proper representation after the wards were restructured in 2017. "The Congress party is a party that takes everyone along and the role of the Congress is that all the sections of the society should get justice. In this regard, a committee has been appointed under the chairmanship of senior leader Janardan Chandurkar and the report of this committee will be submitted to the chief minister and the EC," he

added.