Maharashtra Congress chalks out extensive public outreach after jolt to MVA allies

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi met senior leaders of the party’s Maharashtra unit in Delhi on Tuesday (July 11) to chalk out an extensive public outreach plan for the state that will go to polls months after next year’s Lok Sabha elections.

The meeting, held in the backdrop of the recent rebellion within the party’s key ally, Sharad Pawar’s NCP, saw the Congress top brass discussing various organisational deficiencies in its Maharashtra unit while stressing on the need for extensive grassroots campaigns by senior leaders.

Sources told The Federal that both Kharge and Rahul impressed upon their Maharashtra colleagues to ensure that the party’s fractured Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition recoups quickly from the serious setbacks that allies, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena and the NCP, have suffered over the past year.

Also read: Shiv Sena disqualification case: Speaker issues notices to MLAs of both factions

Fractured unit

The MVA government, led by Uddhav, was toppled last year after a faction led by Sena leader Eknath Shinde decided to split the party and join hands with the BJP. Shinde, who replaced Thackeray as the chief minister in the bargain, has since been leading his own faction of the Shiv Sena though he and another 15 Sena MLAs who joined his rebellion continue to be threatened by the possibility of their disqualification from the Maharashtra Assembly under the anti-defection law. A fortnight back, the NCP too faced a crippling rebellion when Pawar’s nephew, Ajit Pawar, along with eight other senior NCP MLAs, joined the Shinde-led council of ministers.

While both Uddhav and Sharad Pawar have already started touring the state to mobilise cadres of their factions of the Shiv Sena and the NCP, respectively, the Congress leadership in Maharashtra had, so far, been waiting for instructions from its high command amid speculations that the BJP was now eying to engineer defections from the Grand Old Party’s 44-member legislative bloc. The party has been functioning as a heavily fractured unit in the state, with its factions led by leaders such as Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole, former chief ministers Ashok Chavan and Prithviraj Chavan, former MPs Sanjay Nirupam and Milind Deora often working at cross-purposes.

At the four-hour-long deliberations jointly conducted by Kharge and Rahul on Tuesday, Congress’ organisational general secretary KC Venugopal said it was decided that the party must start its parliamentary election campaign in the state without delay.

Call for unity

“The Congress president appealed to all leaders to work unitedly to strengthen the party in the state… it was decided that every senior party leader will be given responsibility of individual parliamentary constituencies and a massive padyatra (foot march) will be launched across each district of Maharashtra in September under the leadership of one big leader, following which, in November-December, a bus yatra by the collective leadership of Maharashtra Congress leaders will be launched to cover the entire state,” Venugopal told reporters.

Also read: Maharashtra NCP crisis: 35 MLAs attend Ajit Pawar’s meeting

Venugopal also asserted that the MVA coalition remains strong and will fight next year’s Lok Sabha and Maharashtra assembly polls unitedly. He later told The Federal that at the meeting, both Kharge and Rahul claimed that the BJP had lost confidence of the voters in states where it came to power by toppling democratically elected governments through defections. They exuded confidence that despite the setbacks suffered by Uddhav’s Sena and Sharad Pawar’s NCP, a united MVA was still well-placed to “to defeat the BJP and its government that has been installed using ED, CBI and other agencies”.

A senior Maharashtra leader present at the meeting told The Federal that plans for joint public outreach campaigns in which Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray, Aditya Thackeray and other leaders from the Sena (Uddhav faction) and the Senior Pawar’s NCP would be present will also be drawn up “in due course”.

Joint MVA outreach

“These discussions would have taken place when Rahul met Sharad Pawar last week but we haven’t finalised anything yet. Pawar has already started touring constituencies represented by the NCP rebels; he visited Yeola (Chhagan Bhujbal’s constituency in Nashik district) and has said he will also address rallies in constituencies of Ajit Pawar, Dhananjay Munde, Dilip Walse-Patil, Sunil Tatkare, Praful Patel and other rebels,” said the leader.

“Uddhav and Aditya are in campaign mode too. So once these leaders finish their scheduled campaign plans, we will discuss a joint MVA outreach. For now, the party will allocate parliamentary seats and districts to individual Maharashtra Congress leaders with the task of mobilising support for the MVA ahead of the polls. A detailed action plan outlining responsibilities given to each leader will be made public soon by the central leadership,” he added.

Also read: Ajit Pawar will replace Shinde as CM, 16 rebel Sena MLAs will be disqualified: Raut

Sources said Kharge may also make some major organisational changes in the Maharashtra unit soon. The Congress president had, last month, appointed four-term Dharavi MLA and Dalit leader Varsha Gaikwad as the first-ever woman president of the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC), replacing party veteran Bhai Jagtap against whose style of functioning several Mumbai Congress leaders had been complaining about.

Change on cards

A veteran Maharashtra Congress MLA told The Federal that Kharge may replace Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole too in the coming weeks and assign the leader to some other organisational role while setting up a string of new election and organisation related committees for the state. Though an aggressive leader, Patole has irked not just several leaders within the Maharashtra Congress with his brusque and unilateral style of functioning but also coalition partners Shiv Sena (Uddhav) and Sharad Pawar’s NCP by repeatedly asserting that, if the situation demands, the Congress could contest the Lok Sabha and assembly polls on its own instead of being an MVA constituent.

It is learnt that Ashok Chavan, Prithviraj Chavan, Nitin Raut, Sanjay Nirupam, Milind Deora and some other senior party leaders could be given key roles either within the Maharashtra Congress or at the AICC, which is also due for a revamp.

“A number of election related committees are to be constituted for Maharashtra. Besides responsibilities in the main state unit, the senior leaders will be adjusted in key roles in these committees to ensure that there is no heartburn against the party and everyone works unitedly. Our feedback from the ground is that the MVA is well placed to defeat the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls and in the assembly election but we can’t be complacent, which is why the high command has already started cracking the whip and forcing all leaders to go out in the field and start campaigning,” said the senior legislator.

Also read: Defiant Ajit Pawar flexes muscle, asks Sharad Pawar to call it quits

Sources said the party is also planning a few rallies that will be jointly addressed by one or more top leaders from each constituent of the MVA coalition. “You may have a rally that has Kharge, Pawar and Uddhav or Rahul, Pawar and Uddhav. Similarly, Supriya Sule, Aditya Thackeray and Priyanka Gandhi may be roped in for joint rallies but these will all depend on the willingness and availability of the Sena and NCP leaders… this was not discussed at Tuesday’s meeting but it is very much on the cards… we may work on it once the Opposition unity meeting scheduled in Bangalore for July 17 and 18 is concluded,” a close aide of Kharge told The Federal.