MVA in Maharashtra Intact; Will Try to Resolve Sangli LS Seat Issue: Congress

Tension arose in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) after Congress leader Vishal Patil filed nomination as independent against Sena UBT candidate Chandrahar Patil in Sangli.

New Delhi:The Congress on Wednesday said the Maha Vikas Aghadi was intact in Maharashtra and the party was trying to find a solution to the problem in the Sangli Lok Sabha seat.

The Sangli seat has been a Congress stronghold but the seat went to Shiv Sena UBT in alliance. However, the problem erupted on Tuesday when Congress leader Vishal Patil filed his nomination as an independent candidate from there in a move that could create friction in the MVA.

“Senior leaders have spoken to Vishal Patil and have advised him to withdraw his candidature and support the alliance candidate in Sangli. The senior leaders have also tried to calm down the local party workers who are very upset over the seat going to Sena UBT,” AICC secretary in charge of Maharashtra Ashish Dua told ETV Bharat.

According to party insiders, Vishal Patil has filed two sets of papers one as a Congress candidate and the other as an Independent. However, his candidature will not be considered official till the Congress allows him to fight the elections on party symbol hand. There is no such requirement for an independent candidate but if allowed, the move could lead to tensions within the MVA which is trying to take on the BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP ruling coalition.

The Sangli case is like the recent problem that erupted in Bihar’s Purnia seat which went to the RJD in alliance but still Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav filed his nomination as an Independent. Rajesh had earlier merged his Jan Adhikar Party with the Congress in the hope that he would get a ticket from his stronghold Purnia. Miffed over Pappu’s move the RJD and the state Congress unit complained to the high command against Yadav but no action could be taken as he was technically not a member of the grand old party.

The situation is different in Sangli where the Patil family has been with the Congress for decades and Vishal is formally a party member. Vishal’s grandfather Vasantdada Patil was a party stalwart and he himself had been preparing for the national polls for long.

The Congress was so confident of getting the seat that even before the final seat-sharing was announced Maharashtra unit chief Nana Patole had announced that Vishal Patil would contest the Sangli seat which remained with the Congress from 1962 to 2014.

However, the Congress had to give up its claim on the seat for the sake of the alliance. The Sena UBT then fielded Chandrahar Patil in Sangli where polling would take place on May 7. Sena UBT has already reacted saying it was the responsibility of each party to control its cadres.

The AICC managers are now hoping that better sense prevails with Vishal, otherwise any punitive action against Patil would further make the workers unhappy.

“There are still a few days left for withdrawal. Let us wait and watch. The Sangli issue will be resolved soon. Other than this there is no problem within the alliance,” Maharashtra Congress working president Mohamed Arif Naseem Khan told ETV Bharat.

Out of the total 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, the Congress got 17, Shiv Sena UBT 21 and NCP-SP 10. The division of seats took place as per the previous 2019 Lok Sabha results in which the Congress had contested 25 seats but got only 1 seat, the NCP had contested 19 and got 4.

The NDA contested all 48 seats and won 41. Out of that the BJP had contested 25 seats and won 23 seats while the undivided Shiv Sena contested 23 seats and won 18.