After facing setbacks in the recent Haryana elections and being accused by its Indian bloc partners of “overconfidence”, the Congress appears to be treading cautiously ahead of the November 20 Maharashtra Assembly elections.
Congress is looking to strike a balancing act while seeking more seats from Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP), while ensuring that The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance remains intact. At the same time, it is working on strategies to prevent the ticket allocation problems that sealed its fate in the Haryana elections.
The Congress has sent signals that it does not want to repeat the same “mistakes” it did in Haryana. One such indication came when the All India Congress Committee (AICC) recently appointed 11 senior observers from various districts of Maharashtra and two senior coordinators for the state.
Congress insiders say the party does not want to take any chances in a country with a strong Dalit-Muslim base and where it has done well in the Lok Sabha elections. The Congress went on to win 13 seats in Maharashtra – the highest of any contender in the state – while the BJP and the Shiv Sena (UBT) won nine seats each.
“Our problems in Maharashtra may be different from those in Haryana because we don’t have a tall leader like (Bhupinder) Hooda ji who was in charge of the campaign there. But the issue of keeping the allies happy is important while remaining firm on seat-sharing,” said a senior Congress leader who has been tasked with working in Maharashtra. His statement is important as the Sena (UBT) was among the participants who said that the Congress should “stay” more.
Another Congress leader said that Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi is keeping a close eye on the party’s preparations for the Maharashtra elections.
“During the meetings it was discussed that we will not let things go the way they are doing in Haryana. In Maharashtra, the AICC wants to be more involved in managing the leadership of the state, especially those who want to contest the elections,” said a senior leader.
Another leader, who has already started campaigning in Maharashtra, said the party will follow an “objective method of ticket allocation”.
“We will not allow tickets to be decided jointly with top leaders as happened in Haryana. The only criterion will be the candidate’s ability to succeed. Even those who do not get tickets in the state will be handled by the top leadership of AICC,” said the leader adding that the party will make every effort to ensure that those who are deprived of tickets do not defect and run for independent elections. .
In Haryana, the rebels were denied party tickets and continued to contest as the Independents had a negative impact on the Congress. The official defeat of the members of this party in many seats was considered by them as they ended up withholding their votes.
On Wednesday, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar – leaders of Shiv Sena, BJP and NCP respectively – jointly presented the report card of their Mahayuti coalition government.
After the Lok Sabha polls, where the Mahayuti had 17 seats against the MVA’s 30, the Shinde government announced a financial assistance scheme for women to consolidate the Mahayuti vote bank.
As a counter to this, the Congress is also looking to quickly launch its five promises and manifesto in the state. There is a feeling among the party elite that its manifesto for Haryana was released later than it should have been, with less time to take the party’s narrative to the people.
“The party is considering five promises for the people of Maharashtra – where we will make promises to voters like housing allowance, free bus travel for women, free 10 kg grain, cheap power, and unemployment allowance. We will have a promise of caste-based census in our manifesto,” the leader said. of AICC.
The Congress leader said Gandhi did not want to make assurances “workable”.
“There is pressure from the allies regarding assurances, but Rahul ji wants the assurances to be fully functional so that the party does not lose face in the long run. I think a middle ground will be reached in terms of guarantees,” said the leader, who is considered close to Gandhi.
Congress’s assurances initially helped the party taste success in the 2022 Himachal Pradesh elections. The same template was repeated in Telangana (2023) and Karnataka (2023) – both states where the party eventually won.
On the issue of casteism, the Congress does not want to repeat in Maharashtra its mistake of Harana – relying too much on one community (the Jats) – which led to the division of the community and the integration of other OBC and Dalit communities in favor of the BJP.
“We will focus our campaign on the Constitution and census by caste. That worked for us in the Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra and will ensure that we win again,” said the Maharashtra Congress leader.
AICC Maharashtra secretary-general Kunal Chaudhary told The Indian Express that the elections in the state will be fought “on the ideology of Jyotirao Phule, Dr Ambedkar and Shahuji Maharaj against the ideology of Manusmriti followed by the BJP”.
“We are fighting this election for Dalits, Backward Classes and those who were marginalized,” he said.
Congress spokesperson Subharansh Kumar Rai said the biggest issue the Congress will rely on in the Maharashtra elections will be the corruption and “stolen authority” of the Shinde government, referring to the June 2022 coup that split the undivided Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena.