Congress announces desire to become no.1 party in Maharashtra by 2024 amid unease in MVA

Signalling unease within the MVA, Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole revealed on Tuesday that he had been given the task of helping his party emerge as number one in the state. After winning only 44 seats in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls, Congress is currently the fourth-largest party in the state Assembly after BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP. Patole, who replaced Maharashtra Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat as the state Congress chief on February 5, met party president Sonia Gandhi and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi in the national capital.

Speaking to the media thereafter, the former Assembly Speaker exuded confidence in Congress becoming the number one party in Maharashtra by 2024. The recent rejig in the state Congress unit took place amid the perception that it has yielded a lot of political space to NCP and Shiv Sena since becoming a part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi in the state. While Patole lost the 2019 Lok Sabha election on a Congress ticket to Nitin Gadkari, he got elected to the Maharashtra Assembly from Sakoli in Bhandara district. In other appointments to Maharashtra Congress, 6 working presidents and 10 vice presidents have been named. 

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Congress' unease within MVA

Despite winning a comfortable majority of its own in the 2019 Assembly election, NDA could not form the government in 2019 over Shiv Sena's demand for the rotational CM post. After the imposition of the President's Rule in the State, BJP took a surprising step of joining hands with NCP's Ajit Pawar, who had reportedly promised the support of other legislators. However, the new Fadnavis-led government had to resign ahead of the SC-mandated floor test owing to the paucity of numbers. Subsequently, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray took oath as the CM of Maharashtra backed by new allies NCP and Congress on November 28, 2019.

In the last few months, multiple Congress leaders including Balasaheb Thorat have expressed their concerns over their party being neglected in the coalition government. In May 2020, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi had publicly stated that Congress was not the key decision-maker in Maharashtra. Recently, Congress has locked horns with Shiv Sena over its suggestion that Sharad Pawar should replace Sonia Gandhi as UPA chairperson and the demand to rename Aurangabad. On multiple occasions, Congress has made it clear that it would not hesitate to quit the Maharashtra government if anyone speaks against its leadership. 

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