The constituents of Mahavikas Aghadi are busy finalizing the seat distribution for the Maharashtra Assembly elections. The picture regarding this will become clear soon. Congress is claiming to contest the maximum number of seats in the alliance, but it is not easy for the party to repeat the performance of Lok Sabha elections in the assembly elections. Congress had won 13 seats from this state in the Lok Sabha elections. At the same time, the special thing is that Congress has not been able to touch the figure of 50 seats in the assembly elections for the last 10 years.
MVA parties will contest on 85-85 seats
‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’ (MVA), an alliance of Congress, NCP (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT), on Wednesday announced to contest elections on 85 seats each in Maharashtra. However, discussions are still going on to finalize the seat sharing. The three allies are discussing sharing the remaining 33 seats among themselves and with smaller parties. Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said in the press conference that agreement has been reached on 270 out of total 288 seats for the assembly elections to be held on November 20.
The alliance between Congress and NCP (SP) led by Sharad Pawar in Maharashtra is decades old. Both the parties have been fighting elections together for the last two decades. Congress has always played the role of elder brother in all these elections. That means Congress has contested more seats than NCP. After the elections, Congress also led the coalition government.
After the formation of Mahavikas Aghadi in 2019, Congress became the second party in the alliance, but within five years, Congress proved itself and contested the Lok Sabha elections on 17 seats and won 13. At the same time, Shiv Sena headed by Uddhav Thackeray could contest 21 seats and win only nine. Now for the Congress, the performance of the Lok Sabha elections is the challenge for the Assembly.
factionalism like Haryana
Like Haryana, there is no less factionalism within the party in Maharashtra too. Along with internal factionalism, the party will also have to deal with rhetoric against alliance partners. Because, it causes electoral loss. In such a situation, the Congress leadership will have to campaign with better coordination and unity while keeping a check on the rhetoric and internal fights of the party leaders.
NCP’s performance was better last time
In the assembly elections (2019), Congress and NCP contested in alliance under the chairmanship of Sharad Pawar. Congress had fielded 147 candidates and NCP 121 candidates. Congress was successful in winning 44 seats and NCP 54 seats. In such a situation, the strike rate of NCP was much better than that of Congress.
Have to perform like 2009
A Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra has an average of six assembly seats. In such a situation, Congress will have to win 76 seats as per its performance in the Lok Sabha elections. For this he will have to repeat the performance of 2009 elections. In that, Congress had won 82 seats. But in the subsequent elections, Congress could not even touch the 50 mark.
