New Delhi: The Congress is upbeat over the rush of ticket seekers and is viewing it as a political trend in favour of the opposition alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in poll-bound Maharashtra. Elections for the 288-member Assembly are likely to be held in November. “The applications are still open. So far, we received around four or five applications per Assembly segment. The rush of ticket seekers is a positive trend Mfor Maha Vikas Aghadi,” AICC secretary in-charge of Maharashtra Ashish Dua told ETV Bharat.
Earlier, the state unit had put a fee of Rs 20,000 each for the general category applicants and Rs 5,000 each for those belonging to the SC and ST categories to shortlist the serious contestants. According to Maharashtra Congress Working President Mohamed Arif Naseem Khan, the sole criteria for selecting the MVA candidates would be ‘winnability’ and the alliance partners would start seat-sharing negotiations in the first week of August.
“No numbers have been decided by the alliance on seat-sharing so far. The Congress panel would start seat-sharing discussions with the alliance partners in August. The winnability factor would play a key role in the distribution of seats as well as the tickets depending on the strength of the party in a seat,” Khan said amid reports that the Congress wanted 125 seats.
“During the Lok Sabha elections, the MVA had a lead in 146 Assembly seats out of a total of 288. In the upcoming polls, we will take this to 200 seats. Party workers are rushing for tickets sensing the alliance is close to gaining power,” he said.
In the 2019 Assembly polls, the BJP had won 105 seats, Shiv Sena 56, NCP 54 and Congress 44. The BJP-Shiv Sena alliance was pitted against the Congress-NCP combine, but this time the Congress-NCP-SP-Shiv Sena UBT are together as MVA.
Congress insiders said most of the sitting MLAs may be fielded again barring a few against whom the high command had received complaints of anti-party activities during the MLC polls. Also, a mix of both young and experienced would be kept while deciding on tickets, they said.
The Congress is betting big on regaining power in the western state it once ruled. Keeping that in mind AICC in-charge of organisation KC Venugopal recently reviewed the poll preparations in Maharashtra where the party is gearing up for a big public rally in Mumbai on August 20, the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
“We are preparing for a big show in which party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi will be present. Workers and leaders will be coming to the rally from across the state,” said Khan.
During the rally, Rahul is expected to slam the BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP coalition government over alleged corruption, neglect of farmers and poor upkeep of urban infrastructure in the state, said party insiders. Over the past few days, all the MVA allies have been slamming the ruling combine over various public issues. Shiv Sena UBT’s Sanjay Raut had backed the three Congress Chief Ministers boycotting the NITI Ayog meeting saying the union budget was partisan.
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