Mumbai, Sep 6 (PTI) Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole on Friday said unseating the Eknath Shinde government in the upcoming assembly polls was more important for the Maha Vikas Aghadi than discussing who will be the opposition alliance’s chief ministerial face.
Talking to PTI, Patole said there is tremendous unrest among all sections of the people against the state government and they want the Congress to come back to power.
“We are fighting to protect the ideology of Maharashtra. Our aim is to defeat the Eknath Shinde government and not fight for the CM post,” Patole emphasised.
“People want the Congress to return to power. We have our presence in every region. Congress is in the DNA of Maharashtra even though the party has seen several ups and downs in the state,” Patole said.
He said seat sharing talks in the MVA, which comprises the Congress, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) and Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT), will begin after Ganesh Chaturthi festivities, which commences on Saturday.
Replying to a question, he said there was no need to speculate on the absence of Thackeray in an event in Sangli, which was attended by the Congress’ Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge as well as opposition stalwart Sharad Pawar.
“It was not a political programme but a family event where the statue of senior Congress leader Patangrao Kadam was unveiled. Kadam’s son and Congress leader Vishwajit Kadam invited everyone for the programme. Uddhav Thackeray had prior engagements so he expressed his inability to be present. There is no politics involved,” Patole asserted.
Patole also rejected talk of the Congress trying to project itself as “big brother” in the MVA, adding that “merit will be the basis for seat adjustments”.
“There are no differences between us. There is no big brother, small brother here. We will sit together and decide on who fights from which seat,” Patole said.
The Congress won the maximum number of seats in Lok Sabha polls (13 out of 48) due to the wrong policies of the BJP-led ruling alliance and also because “we highlighted issues concerning farmers, youth, education, health and transport sectors”, he said.
Patole brushed aside talk of the Shiv Sena (UBT) wanting to contest 22 out of 36 assembly seats in Mumbai. “There has been no discussions yet. The Shiv Sena (UBT) has not declared the number of seats or candidates. It is a media game,” he added.
The MVA will recover its Lok Sabha losses in the Mumbai and Konkan belt, which account for over 70 assembly seats, in the upcoming polls, Patole asserted.
He pointed to the Badlapur school sexual assault case and the collapse of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s statue in Malvan on August 26 and said these incidents had completely exposed the ruling alliance in Maharashtra. PTI MR BNM
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