Maharashtra polls: Cong to begin negotiations with Maha Vikas Aghadi partners

Ahead of Assembly elections in Maharashtra, the Congress on Friday constituted two committees for negotiations with Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies.

Polls to the 288-member assembly in the state are scheduled to be held later this year. However, the Election Commission of India has not yet announced the dates.

The two committees, the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) and the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC) have been formed with the approval of Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge.

MPCC members include Nana Patole, Balasaheb Thorat, Vijay Wadettiwar, Prithviraj Chavan, Nitin Raut, Arif Naseem Khan, and Satej Patil. Mumbai RCC members are Varsha Gaikwad, Ashok Jagtap, and Aslam Shaikh.

In the recently concluded Lok Sabha election, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance, which was formed in November 2019 received a shot in its arm by winning over 29 of 48 seats in Maharashtra.

The performance of the three parties in the opposition alliance, despite facing challenges such as splits within two parties, defections by key figures, and legal issues involving prominent leaders, is likely to influence the Assembly elections scheduled for September-October this year.

Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar (NCP-SP) won eight of the ten seats allocated to it under the seat-sharing agreement. The Congress improved its performance by taking control of Vidarbha from the BJP, increasing its seats from one in 2019 to 13 in 2024. Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena-UBT won only nine of 21 seats in the state.

The Samajwadi Party (SP), which is part of the opposition INDIA bloc is also keen to contest around 10-12 seats in the upcoming assembly polls as part of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition, recently elected MPs of the party said at a function in Mumbai.

The programme was in line with the party’s preparations for the assembly polls in the state.