Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Jun 26 (PTI) NCP (SP) state president Jayant Patil on Wednesday said the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) constituents should stay away from naming a chief ministerial candidate ahead of the Maharashtra assembly elections and instead focus on returning to power in the state.
He also said that no MVA ally should (unilaterally) declare the number of seats it is contesting as winnability will be the only criteria in the upcoming polls.
The MVA, an alliance of Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress, was in power in the state from November 2019. However, it collapsed in June 2022 after the Shiv Sena split following a rebellion led by Eknath Shinde.
Of the three MVA allies, the NCP (SP) has clocked 80 per cent strike rate in the Lok Sabha elections by winning eight out of 10 seats it contested.
Patil was present in the city to attend party-related programmes and meetings.
“The Maha Vikas Aghadi constituents should stay away from naming anyone as the chief minister (candidate). Instead, their priority should be returning to power. There should be no competition among the alliance members to avoid a gap,” the former state minister said.
On seat-sharing in the MVA for the assembly polls, he said the allies planned to hold a meeting on June 25, but Congress also had a meeting that day, so a new date will be finalised.
“There is no need to declare (unilaterally) the number of seats that the parties are contesting. Winnability will be the criteria for the candidates in the upcoming polls and we will support such candidates,” he said.
Ahead of this year’s Lok Sabha elections, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) had announced candidates for 21 out of the total 48 seats in the state. Its decision had drawn flak from the Congress, which said every MVA constituent must follow the coalition dharma. The Congress finally contested 17 seats, while the NCP (SP) fought on 10 seats.
After the Lok Sabha poll results, the Sharad Pawar-led party gained an upper hand as it won eight out of 10 seats its contested. The Congress, which had won only one Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra in the 2019 polls, made an impressive comeback, winning 13 out of the 17 seats it contested.
The Thackeray-led party recorded a strike rate of 41 per cent, winning only nine of the 21 seats it contested.
Patil said inducting leaders from the rival NCP led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar was not the priority of the party.
“Taking old colleagues back is not our priority. But the party workers who could not become part of the (Eknath Shinde-led) government and were used to making an entry into power are in our contact. New people, youth faces are joining us,” he said.
NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday maintained that there was no issue in welcoming people back from the rival NCP as their entry will benefit the opposition outfit and boost the morale of workers.
On the protests linked to different castes over reservation in the Marathwada region, he said, “This is very serious…There should be social equality. People of all religions and castes have lived together in villages and efforts should be made so that they remain together.” PTI AW NP
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