New Delhi: A day prior to the Maharashtra Assembly election results, mood in the MVA camp was ‘jubilant but cautious’ as the Opposition alliance members firmed up counting day strategy.
“The MVA is set to form the next government. People have voted for change,” AICC in-charge of Maharashtra Ramesh Chennithala told ETV Bharat.
According to MVA insiders, there was jubilation in expectation that the alliance will get a comfortable majority and caution as there were concerns that the BJP may try to use money power to cobble up the numbers if the contest was close and the Mahayuti needed the support of some extra lawmakers to retain power.
“The mood in the MVA is that of jubilation but with caution. Our assessment is that we are set to form the government with 160-165 seats,” senior Congress leader Charan Singh Sapra told ETV Bharat.
“We have heard that the saffron party was booking choppers to ferry their MLAs and booking hotels in Mumbai to secure the lawmakers. There is no panic among the MVA but we have issued instructions to all our candidates. They have been asked to reach Mumbai as soon as possible after collecting their victory certificates on Nov 23. The meeting of alliance lawmakers may be held on November 24,” he said.
MVA insiders recalled the events after the 2019 Assembly elections when the alliance had to parade its lawmakers in the Raj Bhawan to show it had the numbers needed to form the government amid efforts by the BJP to prevent it from coming to power. The saffron party was miffed that long-term ally Sena had joined hands with the Congress and Sharad Pawar's NCP. Later, the BJP broke the Sena and NCP in 2022 and 2023 respectively to gain power.
Keeping that in mind, top leaders of the three main constituents, Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) held two rounds of meetings on Thursday and Friday after the voting on November 20 to assess the performance of the opposition grouping and make preparations for the results day.
The common view within the alliance was that the MVA would be somewhere between 160-165 seats out of the 288 seats with the Congress getting around 70 seats. The fresh MVA assessment was firmed up after the voting day and was slightly less than the initial estimates, which showed the alliance at 170 plus. In contrast, the BJP would be the single largest party within the Mahayuti but was likely to get less than 100 seats, the MVA insiders said. In 2019, the BJP had got 104 seats.
Noting that Independent MLAs could be targeted by the saffron party if needed, the MVA insiders said strong regional leaders of the Opposition alliance would manage the floating lawmakers.
MVA insiders acknowledged that once the numbers are confirmed by November 23 afternoon, all speculation would shift to the chief ministerial face of the alliance but the issue would be handled with care.
“After the results, we all will sit down and finalise the chief ministerial and other issues peacefully. The agenda for the new government has already been decided and was shared with the public,” said Sapra.
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