Maharashtra: Congress not ready to declare Uddhav as CM candidate

Mumbai: The chief minister’s post has become a major bone of contention in the Maha Vikas Aghadi even before the announcement of Maharashtra Assembly election dates. The opposition alliance consisting Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP), is confident of returning to power based on its success in the Lok Sabha elections. The Shiv Sena (UBT) is insisting that Uddhav Thackeray should be declared the alliance’s chief ministerial face. However, Maharashtra Congress leaders, who are confident that their party will emerge as the biggest party in the state Assembly, are opposed to it.

Senior Congress leader and former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said that the MVA will contest the Assembly election on the common minimum programme of the alliance and not project anyone as the CM candidate. He claimed that the Assembly elections in Maharashtra were never contested after projecting someone as the chief ministerial candidate and it is unlikely to change this time also.

“We will first decide the CMP and our priority will be to implement the CMP after coming to power. After the results, whichever party has the highest number of MLAs will get the CM’s post. That has been the practice in the state,” Mr. Chavan said.

The Congress leader’s comments came in the wake of the reports that Uddhav Thackeray was in Delhi for three days to lobby for the CM post with the Congress high command. During his visit, which ended on Friday, he along with his son Aaditya and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi as well as leaders from other INDIA bloc parties.

In the recently held Lok Sabha elections, the MVA won 30 out of 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. MVA parties are confident that the Lok Sabha trend will continue and they will win two third majority in the state Assembly. NCP founder Sharad Pawar has predicted that the MVA will win more than 200 out of 288 Assembly seats in Maharashtra. Mr. Chavan has also said that the alliance will win more than 180 seats.

While the Shiv Sena (UBT) wants assurance from the alliance partners that Mr. Thackeray, who was CM in the previous MVA government, will return in the same capacity, the state Congress leaders are against giving any such commitment. The Congress won 12 Lok Sabha seats and emerged as the single largest party in Maharashtra and therefore the Congress leaders aspiring to become the CM do not want to give up the opportunity.

However, Mr. Raut said that the MVA needs to declare its Chief Ministerial candidate before the polls. He argued that the INDIA bloc would have formed the government in the Centre had it declared Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Ministerial candidate before the polls.

“Mr. Thackeray and Mr. Gandhi have been at the forefront of raising their voice against policies of the BJP-led government at the Centre. Had Rahul Gandhi been the Opposition’s Prime Ministerial candidate, we would have defeated the BJP in Lok Sabha. We need to have a face for the Assembly polls,” Mr. Raut said.

The Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) is also non-committal on the CM post. State Congress President Nana Patole said, “We would contest the election as MVA.”

Interestingly, Mr. Thackeray had snapped ties with the BJP in 2019 on the ground that he was promised the CM post for two and half years, but the BJP was not ready to fulfill its promise. Despite the BJP-Shiv Sena getting clear majority by winning 161 out of 288 Assembly seats, Mr. Thackeray formed a post-poll alliance with the Congress and NCP to form his own government. He had to resign in June 2022 after current chief minister Eknath Shinde’s rebellion. Mr. Shinde later formed the government with the BJP’s support.