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Former Maharashtra chief minister and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said on Thursday that his party will lead the opposition in Maharashtra after the recent split in the NCP and will contest the Lok Sabha elections next year as part of the Maha Vikas Agadi coalition.
In an interview with PTI, he also expressed confidence that there will be no division in the Congress as seen with Shiv Sena and the National Congress Party (NCP).
Chavan said that at the national level, the opposition coalition was forming on the basis of the principle adopted by the then opposition under the leadership of J.P. Narayan to defeat Indira Gandhi in 1977.
We (Narayan) defeated (Congress) but the principle remains. He formed a broad-based coalition of opposition parties that opposed Indira Gandhi. They did not quarrel over who would lead the coalition. Chavan said Mr. JP Narain led the coalition but was not the PM candidate.
He said that the opposition coalition, which is now being formed, is moving in this direction.
“If we adopt this strategy and put aside the issue of the prime minister saying that our first objective is to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party and save democracy and the constitution, we can do it,” the Congress leader said.
Chavan said that “Our endeavor is for the opposition to stand a joint candidate against the BJP and the fight across the country is one against one in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections”.
Talking about the rapid developments in Maharashtra politics and whether the Congress will take over the leadership of Maha Vikas Agadi, Chavan said that there were two major defections in two major components of the MVA – the Shiv Sena and the NCP – and after that, the Congress emerged as the largest component of the coalition.
Naturally, the Congress will take the lead, it will become the main opposition party, and the congressman will probably become the leader of the opposition. He said that the numbers have decreased since the time we were in the government because there were two divisions, but whatever the numbers are, our parties are large, and we are supported by a large number of people on the ground.
“The Congress will lead the opposition and we will be an effective opposition (in Maharashtra),” he stressed.
His remarks come days after NCP President Sharad Pawar faced a rebellion by his nephew Ajit Pawar, who along with eight other leaders joined the government led by Eknath Shinde.
In a surprise move, Ajit Pawar was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister, while eight lawmakers from his National Congress Party were sworn in as ministers in the government led by Shiv Sena (Shinde) and the BJP.
The Congress is part of the MVA alliance which consists of himself, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) and the NCP.
There are no two ways about it, said Chavan, who was Chief Minister of Maharashtra between November 2010 and September 2014. After this split in the NCP, the Congress emerged as the largest party in the MVA.
There will be no division in Congress. Congress will have to lead opposition unity in Maharashtra. With the meeting in Delhi, it became quite clear that we will contest the Lok Sabha elections as MVA, and the seats will be shared at a later date.
He said, “We have started an exercise (to share seats), but because of the division in the NCP, a fresh start must be made.”
Senior Congress leaders from Maharashtra met with party leaders this Tuesday and discussed the political situation in the aftermath of the split in the NCP.
Asked whether the MVA will continue till 2024, Chavan said, “There is no reason to ask this question. We have said many times that the MVA was formed with a purpose and that purpose was to defeat the communal forces led by the BJP and stop the march towards dictatorship.” which the Modi government is leading the country to.” These aims remain, whoever comes with us, we shall fight (together), there are four to five small parties, we implore them to join us. There will be a seat-sharing formula to be worked out over a period of time,” he said.
I will be the first to admit that our strength has been diminished by the split first in the Shiv Sena and then in the NCP. But the NCP is divided, the picture is not very clear as to whether Mr. Ajit Pawar really has a two-thirds majority, because if he doesn’t, then under the tenth schedule of the constitution, the nine MLAs who are sworn in as ministers. not qualified “.
Speaking about the recent split in the NCP, Chavan said that many people have not decided which side they are on and they go back to their constituencies to discover that people do not like this “betrayal”. He claimed that they will return to Sharad Pawar.
On whether Congress will get bargaining power due to the developments in Maharashtra, Chavan said he will not talk about the current situation in terms of bargaining power.
Where is the subject of negotiation. We will discuss the seat-sharing formula and present the best candidates to take over the BJP. We will try to present one opposition candidate against one candidate for the National Democratic Alliance. If we are able to do this, then the electoral arithmetic is very simple.
He said that in 2019, the BJP managed to get 37 percent of the vote, which means around 65 percent voted against the BJP to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
But this 65 per cent is divided in such a way that there are 38 parties represented in the Lok Sabha. This division of votes helps Prime Minister Modi, and he called on the opposition to unite and not allow the division of votes in the 2024 general elections.
(This story was not edited by the News18 staff and was published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)
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