Congress’ Ramesh Shuts Down Rumors Of Rift Between Parties

Shutting down rumors of a rift within the Maha Vikas Aghadi, Congress’ election in-charge for Maharashtra polls, Ramesh Chennithala on Saturday met Shiv Sena (UBT) Chief Uddhav Thackeray and said that the health of both Thackeray and MVA is fine.

“I met Uddhav Thackeray today. He was in the hospital recently so I went to inquire about his health. ‘Vo ab theek hai aur Maha Vikas Aghadi ka bhi tabeyat theek hai,” Chennithala said while talking to the media.

He further asserted that the MVA has no differences and are together in this.

“We will have discussions on seat sharing again at 3 pm today. Nana Patole, Sanjay Raut, and Jayant Patil will work on seat division today,” the Congress leader said.

Earlier on Friday, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut announced that he plans to discuss seat-sharing arrangements with Rahul Gandhi for the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance and noted that there were many seats on which decisions remained pending.

Sanjay Raut said that most of the leaders of Maharashtra are not capable of taking decisions and said, “Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena are in the alliance, Samajwadi Party, Peasants and Workers Party of India (PWP) are also there. They have to send the list to Delhi again and again. Now that time has passed. We want this decision to be taken as soon as possible.”

Adding further, he said, “There is no major difference of opinion between NCP and Shiv Sena, not even in Congress but there are some seats on which all three parties claim. Nana Patole is our ally in Maharashtra, but there is a problem on some seats, it will be resolved.”

Notably, Maha Vikas Aghadi is the alliance of Congress, Shiv Sena-UBT (Uddhav Thackeray’s faction) and NCP-SP (Sharad Pawar’s faction) and are up against ruling Mahayuti — the alliance of BJP, NCP and Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction).

Assembly elections in Maharashtra will be held in a single phase on November 20 with counting of votes on November 23. With this, the political parties have begun gearing up for an election that will be unprecedented in many ways.

In the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls, the Congress and unified Shiv Sena won 154 out of 288 seats as part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition.However, this time around the Shiv Sena (UBT), Sharad Pawar’s NCP and Congress are in alliance to counter the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance.

In the Lok Sabha election held this year, MVA won 30 of the state’s 48 Lok Sabha seats. The ruling alliance won 17. One seat went to an Independent candidate. (ANI)