After the Congress suffered a crushing loss in the Haryana elections, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and senior party leader Rahul Gandhi told Maharashtra party leaders to shun “overconfidence” and work unitedly to achieve victory in the upcoming state Assembly polls.
The discussion was held at a meeting the Congress central leadership held with the top leaders of Maharashtra, Indian Express reported.
The stage is prepared for a fresh round of electoral faceoff in Maharashtra and Jharkhand as the Election Commission (EC) is set to announce the schedule for the Assembly elections.
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Having managed to restrict the BJP well short of a majority in the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress contested the Assembly elections in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir on a confident note but the outcome had been debilitating for the Opposition force. An even bigger challenge awaits the Opposition and the Congress in Maharashtra and Jharkhand.
The first would be to arrive at a cordial seat sharing agreement in the three-party MVA alliance.
Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition in Maharashtra, where the three constituents — the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP(SP) — are preparing for ousting the BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP government.
The Congress is eyeing more seats after its impressive performance in Maharashtra during the Lok Sabha elections. The NCP(SP) and the Sena (UBT), too, are gearing up for some bargaining. The Congress had won 13 of the 30 seats secured by the INDIA bloc in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha polls. The Sena (UBT) and the NCP(SP) won nine and eight seats each.
In the Congress leadership’s Monday meeting with Maharashtra leaders, the unanimous view that emerged was that the alliance need not project a CM face. The Congress wants to contest in as many as 110-115 seats of the total 288, leaving 90-95 seats for the Sena (UBT) and 80-85 seats for the NCP (SP), IE reported.