Rahul Gandhi Expresses Discontent Over Congress Candidate List for Maharashtra Assembly Elections

Baby Chakraborty, KalimNews, October 27, 2024, New Delhi : Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has voiced dissatisfaction with his party’s candidate selection for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly polls, set for November 20. The elections, which will be conducted in a single phase, see October 29 as the final date for submitting nomination papers. With two days left, efforts to resolve seat-sharing disputes within the opposition alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) are intensifying.

So far, MVA has been able to allocate candidates for 217 out of the 288 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly. Over the weekend, the Congress finalized candidates for 39 seats, with 16 candidates announced on Sunday and 23 on Saturday. Meanwhile, Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena has fielded candidates for a total of 80 seats, with 15 announced in the latest list. Sharad Pawar's NCP has put forth candidates for 66 constituencies. However, both parties in the alliance have overlapped in several constituencies, causing friction.

While the NDA’s allies observe the unfolding seat allocation struggle, Rahul Gandhi’s dissatisfaction with the Maharashtra Congress Screening Committee is evident. Sources report that Gandhi is particularly concerned about seats being allocated to Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena in districts where Congress has a historically strong presence. He questions the strategy, especially given the Congress’s aspirations to contest 110 seats across the state.

The party's internal goal was bolstered by its success in reaching 99 seats in the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, creating a sense of optimism. However, a recent loss in Haryana has cast a shadow over this optimism, fueling tensions within the Congress about the Maharashtra campaign strategy.

Gandhi has reportedly conveyed that he feels Shiv Sena was awarded more seats than necessary, particularly in Congress strongholds like Mumbai and Vidarbha. Congress legislative party leader Balasaheb Thorat, state party representative Ramesh Chennithala, and state president Nana Patole have been tasked with negotiating seat adjustments within the MVA alliance. However, Gandhi is displeased with their approach, which he believes has overly favored Shiv Sena at Congress’s expense.

Further adding to his concerns, Gandhi feels that certain segments within the OBC community have been given preference on the candidate list, while other groups have been overlooked. A number of critical seats, however, remain unresolved, leaving Congress leaders in a last-minute scramble to finalize a coherent strategy for the alliance.

With just days remaining, the challenges within the alliance and the internal rifts over candidate allocations suggest that the Congress faces a challenging path ahead in the Maharashtra assembly elections.