New Delhi : The Congress said it sacrificed a few seats in Maharashtra for the sake of the INDIA bloc as it was important to defeat the BJP in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections but noted that it will claim a bigger share in the coming assembly polls.
Out of the total 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, the Congress got 17, Shiv Sena UBT 21 and NCP-SP 10.
“Such things happen in an alliance but all of us have to look at the big picture. We will have to convince our workers. The alliance partners will now have to work together to defeat the BJP-led Mahayuti,” former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan told ETV Bharat.
The division of seats took place keeping in mind the numbers of the previous 2019 Lok Sabha as well as the assembly polls, said party insiders.
In 2019, the Congress had contested 25 seats but got only 1 seat, the NCP had contested 19 and got 4 against the NDA which 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.
In the assembly polls the same year, out of the total 288 seats, the BJP had won 105, undivided Shiv Sena 56, Congress 44 and undivided NCP 54. However, the Sena parted ways with long term ally BJP and formed the Maha Vikas Aghadi government with Congress and NCP.
Over the past two years both the Sena and the NCP were broken up by the BJP which reduced the numbers of two regional allies Shiv Sena UBT and NCP-SP but did not stop them from bargaining hard, said Congress insiders.
According to party insiders, the seat-sharing for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls got delayed as there was a tussle between the Congress and its allies over the Mumbai North West, Sangli and Bhiwandi seats which are traditional strongholds of the grand old party.
In the end, the Congress had to leave Mumbai North West and Sangli for Shiv Sena UBT and Bhiwandi for NCP-SP, which angered the local workers.
Over the past weeks, Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole repeatedly said the party will field Vishal Patil as its candidate from Sangli seat but the Shiv Sena UBT also claimed the constituency.
This had provoked the local Congress leaders led by Vishwajit Kadam who complained about the issue to AICC general secretary KC Venugopal and also wrote to Nana Patole that he would not attend any campaign meetings till Sangli came to the grand old party. Former MP Sanjay Nirupam left the Congress over the Mumbai North West seat.
“We have sacrificed for the sake of Maharashtra and the INDIA bloc. It is very important to defeat the BJP. Though we are the largest opposition party in the state and should have got more seats, we have settled for the numbers finalized. We hope to get a bigger share of seats during the coming assembly polls which will take place later this year,” AICC secretary in charge of Maharashtra Ashish Dua told ETV Bharat.
Both Chavan and Dua said the focus would now be on individual and joint campaigns of the MVA leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Udhhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar.
“Rahul Gandhi is coming to Bhandara-Gondia on April 13, Kharge to Ramtek on April 14 and Priyanka to Chandrapur on April 15. Joint campaigning is already happening in Nagpur, Gadchiroli, Chandrapur and Bhandara-Gondia,” said Dua.
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