As Maharashtra braces for the upcoming Assembly elections later this year, the Congress has taken a significant step by forming two key committees to negotiate with its allies in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). The Election Commission of India has yet to announce the exact dates for the elections, which will decide the fate of the 288-member assembly.
The decision to form these committees was made with the approval of Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge. The Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) and the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC) will spearhead the negotiations with MVA allies to strategize and forge alliances.
The MPCC committee comprises senior Congress leaders including Nana Patole, Balasaheb Thorat, Vijay Wadettiwar, Prithviraj Chavan, Nitin Raut, Arif Naseem Khan, and Satej Patil. On the other hand, the Mumbai RCC team includes Varsha Gaikwad, Ashok Jagtap, and Aslam Shaikh. These committees are tasked with aligning the Congress’s strategies with its MVA allies to present a united front in the assembly elections.
The formation of these committees comes in the wake of a robust performance by the MVA in the recent Lok Sabha elections. The alliance, formed in November 2019, secured a notable victory by winning over 29 out of 48 seats in Maharashtra. Despite facing internal challenges, including splits within the coalition parties, defections of key figures, and legal issues surrounding prominent leaders, the MVA’s performance is expected to influence the forthcoming Assembly polls.
In the Lok Sabha elections, the Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar (NCP-SP) emerged as a significant player, winning eight of the ten seats allocated to it under the seat-sharing agreement. The Congress made substantial gains, increasing its seats from one in 2019 to 13 in 2024, particularly in Vidarbha, which it wrested from the BJP. However, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena-UBT could only secure nine of the 21 seats allocated to it in the state.
Adding to the electoral dynamics, the Samajwadi Party (SP), part of the opposition INDIA bloc, is also preparing to contest around 10-12 seats in the upcoming assembly elections as part of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition. This was announced by newly elected MPs of the SP during a recent event in Mumbai, reflecting the party’s strategic preparation for the polls.