HomePoliticsCongress lost credibility in the MLC elections and ceded political ground to...

Congress lost credibility in the MLC elections and ceded political ground to the NCP

Mumbai: Maharashtra politics may finally get the answer it seeks so anxiously, as to whether Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray retain his post or will have to fight it out. After the withdrawal of the second candidate of Congress and dummy candidates of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the disqualification of the lone Independent candidate from the poll fray, the elections to the vacancies to the 9 Elected MLAs (EMLAs) constituencies in Maharashtra Legislative Council are all set to be held unopposed.

The official announcement remains a mere formality only. However, in this political drama, the Congress lost its political credibility in the state. Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee President Balasaheb Thorat came out as a weak leader whereas Ashok Chavan tried to portray himself as the only state leader who can take on the Shiv Sena and the NCP.

Although the opposition BJP had fielded six candidates in the Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) elections to 9 EMLA constituency seats on Monday as against its earlier decision to field four candidates, the BJP withdrew two of its candidates, thus paving the way for the MLC polls to be held unopposed. After intense pressure from the ruling Shiv Sena and NCP, the Congress finally withdrew its second candidates from the poll fray. 

However, this move made the Congress lose its credibility in Maharashtra politics. The decision has meant that Ashok Chavan, former Chief Minister and former MPCC president succeeded in creating an impression in Delhi that MPCC president Balasaheb Thorat is unable to control the party and that he (Chavan) alone is the only leader who can handle the difficult situation in the state.

The Congress High Command, party president Sonia Gandhi had announced the candidature of only Rajesh Rathod for the MLC election in Maharashtra. However, the very next day, Thorat, under the pressure from Ashok Chavan announced the name of Raj Kishor alias Papa Modi, an unknown figure and political non-entity as party’s second candidate from his own Twitter handle.  A Congress insider claimed that Papa Modi was the handpicked candidate of Ashok Chavan and not of the Congress party.

Members of the legislative assembly are the voters for the EMLA constituency and the Congress has just 44 members in the lower house and it was pretty clear that the party can outright win only one seat. 

Sena insider claimed that a strategy was decided between the opposition BJP and the Shiv Sena at the time of interaction between PM Narendra Modi and CM Uddhav Thackeray that the BJP will field four candidates and MVA will field five candidates in which Sena will get to field 2 candidates, NCP 2 candidates and Congress will get to field 1 candidate.

“However in a power game played by the Marathwada leader, Ashok Chavan who influenced Thorat to field the second candidate and convinced Delhi that Papa Modi can win the election. Chavan also convinced Delhi that Papa Modi can manage additional 15 votes needed to win the election for himself,” claimed the Sena insider.

The other political observers pointed out that Chavan played a very shrewd political game of aiming to hit two birds with one stone. One, he portrayed to Delhi leadership that he alone can get the second seat elected and secondly knowing fully well that it was impossible to do so without the support of Sena and the NCP. “The loss of the second candidate would have let took accountability being fixed on Balasaheb Thorat as MPCC president and is being sacked from the posts as had happened earlier when RD Pradhan was defeated in the Council election and the then MPCC president Ranjeet Deshmukh was sacked from his post. Unfortunately his political fortune could never be recovered after that,” said the observer.

The Congress leader claimed that during the several meetings between the MVA partners – Sena-NCP and Congress have, in which Balasaheb Thorat, Ajit Pawar and Uddhav or his representatives Anil Parab and Milind Narvekar were present, it was made very clear that Sena wanted an unopposed election. 

He said, “It was also cleared that neither Sena nor NCP will support the second candidate of Congress. As per the electoral arithmetic, the sixth seat that is the second seat for the Congress could be won only and only if all the three alliance partners of MVA contested as one entity. But after the Sena and NCP refusal to support the Congress candidate, nor give them their second preferential votes, there was absolutely no scope for the Congress to win the second seat.”

“In such circumstances what prompted the state congress leadership to field the second candidate and then, later on, withdraw bringing a bad name to the party is a big mystery,” he added.

The party sources claimed that there are indications that disturbed by the rise of Rajeev Satav who is reported to be close to Rahul Gandhi and said to be influencing his decisions and also tipped to be the next MPCC president, which Ashok Chavan views as a threat to his leadership in Marathwada region was the main compulsion. It made him pressurise Balasheb Thorat to undertake such immature exercise without taking other senior leaders or former CMs of the Congress in confidence, he said.

Finally, it was the direct threat of CM Uddhav Thackeray that unless the Congress withdraws the second candidate, he would not contest which would have led the collapse of the MVA government and president rule been imposed in Maharashtra, which forced the Delhi leadership to instruct Thorat and Chavan to immediately withdraw the second candidate. 

In all these developments, Chavan and Thorat had not kept AICC General secretary Mallikarjun Kharge in the loop which had upset him very much. “Finally what was been conveyed to Delhi is that such a strategy of Congress will fetch an additional Governor nomine seat from the alliance partners also failed miserably. Because both the partners blatantly refused to entertain any such demands. However, Chavan is using this episode to prop of the candidature of his loyal Papa Modi to be nominated as one of the four Governor nominees MLCs seat which the Congress will get,” said the Congress source

According to political observers, in this whole episode Congress has lost its stature and bargaining power in a shoddy manner. This whole episode was conducted and viewed as an ego war between Chavan and Thorat in which Chavan wanted to assert his authority.

Meanwhile, once again the NCP has become powerful in the state as the NCP stands to gain seats in MLC elections. It is the same NCP that has got back to back two seats in the recent Rajya Sabha elections and has proven that the NCP will be the big brother in Maharashtra. In these elections the Congress has lost its credibility in Maharashtra politics and allowed the NCP to become stronger.

Also, this episode has further strengthened boning nineteen the NCP and Sena and could lead to further isolation of the Congress in decision making in the future.

Meanwhile, according to sources in the Congress, Ashok Chavan is eyeing to become MPCC president once again and had written a letter regarding the same after becoming the PWD minister. But the high command is inclined to appoint Rajeev Satav as the next PCC chief.

Vivek Bhavsar
Vivek Bhavsar
Vivek Bhavsar is the Editor-In-Chief. He is a senior journalist having experience of more than 30 years in political and investigative journalism. He is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheNews21. He has worked with leading English mainline dailies, including The Asian Age, Free Press Journal, and also carries the experience of strides in leading regional newspapers like Lokmat and Saamana.

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