Congress warns leaders against infighting before Maharashtra assembly polls, wary of Haryana loss

The Congress party is bracing up to put its house in order and present a united face in both Maharashtra and Jharkhand where it seeks to win in alliance with its other INDIA bloc partners. This after the party's recent poll debacle in Haryana where factional fighting was cited as one of the reasons for the ‘unexpected’ results.

Maharashtra will vote for its 288 assembly seats in single phase on November 20 while Haryana will go to polls for its 81 seats in two phases — November 13 and November 20. The results of both state elections will be announced on November 23, the Election Commission of India said on Tuesday.

The Congress leadership does not want to take chances and has issued a stern warning to all its state leaders not to speak anything in public either against their party colleagues or any of the allies, said a report by news agency PTI.

The message of stern action in case of any violation has come from none other than Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi, who are learnt to have told all its leaders in Maharashtra to refrain from making any such public statements, during an internal meeting.

Two-way fight

The seat-sharing talks between the three alliance partners of the INDIA bloc are on and sources said 80 per cent of the seats have been finalised, while deliberations are on for the remaining ones.

The Maharashtra election is expected to witness a two-way fight between the ruling Mahayuti Alliance of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP,) Shiv Sena-Eknath Shinde and NCP-Ajit Pawar and Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition, of the Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP - Sharad Pawar and the Congress.

In 2019 the BJP, and undivided Sena, coalition had come to power in the state. 

The MVA alliance partners are going on a seat-to-seat basis, the report said quoting sources. The practice in the alliance has been to choose a chief ministerial candidate from the party getting the largest number of seats, they said.

However, the issue remains a sticky one. The party feels it has the right to the top post, considering the Congress is the largest party in the opposition in the state assembly currently, and its leaders are dropping hints that they are in the race.

Despite the setback in Haryana, the party unit is upbeat in Maharashtra on the performance of the MVA in Lok Sabha elections.

The party on Tuesday appointed division-wise AICC senior observers for the Maharashtra Assembly polls with Ashok Gehlot and G Parameshwara to look after the Mumbai and Konkan region and Sachin Pilot and Uttam Kumar Reddy to oversee the Marathwada region.

Bhupesh Baghel, Charanjit Singh Channi and Umang Singhar will look after the Vidarbha region (Amravati and Nagpur).

TS Singhdeo and M B Patil will take care of western Maharashtra. Syed Naseer Hussain and D Anasuya Seethakka have been appointed senior observers for North Maharashtra, the party said.

Mukul Wasnik and Avinash Pande have been appointed as Maharashtra state election senior coordinators.

The Congress is also likely to announce its guarantees in Maharashtra, as done in other states, in order to counter the BJP-led alliance.

The Congress-NCP(SP)-SS (UBT) alliance of MVA had won 31 out of 48 Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 general elections, while the Congress only won 5 out of 10 seats in Haryana. The Congress had won 44 seats in 2019 assembly polls in Maharashtra, but seven MLAs have resigned.

"We are upbeat by the performance of the MVA in Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra and hope to win the state assembly this time. Our strike rate is much better and we will form our government," a senior Congress leader claimed.

The Congress currently has 37 MLAs, Shiv Sena (UBT) 16 and NCP (Sharad Pawar) 12, besides two for SP, one each for CPI-M and Peasants and Workers Party, in the Maharashtra assembly.

In Jharkhand, the party is banking on the support of its alliance partner Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) which romped home last time and is seeking to retain power. The JMM, part of the INDIA bloc, is up against theNational Democratic Alliance(NDA), which comprises the BJP, the Janata Dal (United), and the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU).

In 2019,Hemant Soren's JMM had won 30 seats while the Congress bagged 16 seats paving way for Soren to be sworn in as chief minister.

As the Congress gets battle-ready for the next round of assembly polls, the opposition party also appointed three AICC senior observers for Jharkhand assembly elections – Tariq Anwar, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu.

Soon after the announcement of assembly elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, Congress president Kharge targeted the BJP on inflation and alleged that in the last 10 and a half years, "Modiji has not helped in any let up of BJP's 'loot' even for 10 and a half seconds!".

"The politics of diversion will not work any longer. The public will vote on the basic issues," Kharge also said.

(With PTI inputs)