Congress eyeing Maha revival, to go alone in BMC polls

Ahead of BMC polls, in which Congress has decided to go solo, AICC Maharashtra in charge HK Patil on Tuesday reviewed electoral preparations. While earlier there were reports that Congress would be going into elections as part of the MVA alliance, the decision was reversed after Eknath Shinde-led rebels threw the Uddhav Thackeray government from power in the Western state, writes ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri.

New Delhi: The Congress has decided to contest the coming BMC polls alone amid the ongoing power tussle within the Shiv Sena and an uncertain future of the Maha Vikas Aghadi to restrengthen the grand old party in Maharashtra. AICC in charge of Maharashtra HK Patil reviewed the preparations for the coming polls of the BMC, the richest municipal corporation in the country, on Monday along with senior state leaders including Mumbai unit chief Bhai Jagtap and working president Charan Singh Sapra and city councillors.

"We are going alone. We are preparing accordingly. Congress is an old party and we have workers in all municipal wards. If we don’t go alone, our party organization will suffer. We have to restrengthen the party and prepare for the next assembly polls and the 2024 national elections," Mumbai Congress working president Charan Singh Sapra told ETV Bharat.

The BMC polls are likely to be held before October. Earlier, there had been reports that the Congress could contest the BMC polls as part of the ruling Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance in Maharashtra but the grand old party has decided to go solo after the Uddhav Thackeray government was toppled by Sena rebel Eknath Shinde with the help of the BJP.

In fresh trouble for the Sena, 12/19 MPs have decided to form a separate group in the Lok Sabha and have urged Speaker Om Birla for the same. This has come after majority Sena MLAs backed Shinde in the state assembly. During the MVA government, Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole often provoked the allies by saying the grand old party would contest the BMC polls alone.

The Congress state leaders had also been upset over the reorganisation of the BMC wards during the previous MVA government and had protested the issue. To keep up the tempo, former Congress MP Milind Deora recently wrote a letter to chief minister Eknath Shinde urging him to scrap the reorganization of the municipal wards in Mumbai.

"The reorganisation of wards in Mumbai was done to benefit one party, the Shiv Sena. The Congress lost out in the process and must fight for its space," said Deora. According to party insiders, the Congress has 30 seats in the BMC and as many as 21 of them had been reserved for women candidates as part of delimitation of wards, putting the grand old party at a disadvantage.

While Deora is seeking recourse from the new chief minister and had raised the issue when Uddhav was CM, state government, some of the Congress councillors have approached the courts over delimitation of municipal wards in Mumbai.

“Everybody has a different take on that issue. The councillors who worked for five years and now find their wards changed will be concerned. But the state election commission has authenticated the process and it will take a call on the issue,” said Sapra. The Congress, which is planning to restrengthen the Maharashtra unit, has started off from capital Mumbai.

On Monday, both Jagtap and Sapra held a meeting with the local Seva Dal team and welcomed its new chief Satish Manchanda. A meeting of the booth and mandal level committees was also held to review the preparedness for the municipal polls.