Amid recent friction between allies Congress and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) following the latter’s claim to contest 23 Lok Sabha seats in the upcoming general election, Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole on January 3 clarified that Mr. Thackeray himself had never made any such demand and that the seat-sharing between the tripartite opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition would be solely based on elective merit.
Speaking in Pune, Mr. Patole said that Mr. Uddhav Thackeray had made no statement about his party wanting to contest on 23 of the total 48 Lok Sabha seats in the State.
“Neither Mr. Thackeray has said anything to this effect, nor has [NCP chief] Sharad Pawar or our Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and [Congress MP] Rahul Gandhi said anything about which party in the MVA contesting how many seats. The top leaders of all three parties will sit and decide the seat-sharing process,” said Mr. Patole.
He was responding to a question on Sena (UBT) spokesman Sanjay Raut’s remarks last week wherein Mr. Raut had said that his party remained firm on contesting 23 Lok Sabha seats – a statement which drew sharp criticism from Mumbai Congress leaders Sanjay Nirupam and Milind Deora, who rebuked the Sena (UBT) leader over his party’s disintegrating vote-bank following the vertical split within the Shiv Sena.
Meanwhile, Mr. Patole said there was no tussle over seats in the MVA and that any fight over seat-sharing was a problem seen with the ruling ‘Mahayuti’ parties.
“Our [MVA’s] formula is not based on who will fight on more or less number of seats. It is based on merit. We will shortly tell you the seat-sharing formula,” said the Congress leader, expressing confidence that the MVA would win 40-41 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the State.
On the impending induction of Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi into the MVA, Mr. Patole said that the Congress’ stance was to take anyone who was opposed to the BJP along with them.
Denying suggestions that the Congress was blocking Mr. Ambedkar’s entry into the VBA and the INDIA bloc, Mr. Patoel said: “Nobody is opposing the VBA’s entry. Sharad Pawar saheb called me after he met Mr. Ambedkar recently. I told him we will all sit in Delhi to finalize talks.”
Despite Mr. Patole’s remarks, Mr. Ambedkar continued to chide the Congress, urging the party to shed off it ‘big brother’ attitude.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Mr. Ambedkar, commenting on the Congress’ situation in Bihar, said that the grand old party ought to contest on only 5 Lok Sabha seats there.
“The feedback from the Dalit section of the electorate in Bihar is that if the Mahagathbandhan wants to defeat Modi, then the Congress should not contest more than 5 seats in Bihar. In 2019, INC contested 9 seats and won only one. In the 2020 Bihar Assembly, INC asked for 70 seats, which the Lalu Prasad-led RJD gave them, but INC could only win 19.
For the greater good of the country, Congress should contest at most 5 seats in Bihar, which will elect 40 Lok Sabha MPs from the state. Priority should be defeat to Mr. Modi and not maintain “big brother” attitude,” Mr. Ambedkar said in his post.
