Congress reviews Maharashtra Assembly Elections prep

Notwithstanding its MVA partnersrsquo demands for more seats Congress has decided to keep calm and wants that the seats be picked only on merit Buoyed by an excellent show in the statersquos Lok Sabha polls the party feels that it will be getting a good number of Assembly seats to fight and winLikewise Congress wants its allies Shiv Sena UBT and Nationalist Congress Party SP to pick their respective seats and contribute to the common cause of installing an MVA government in the stateAggressive campaignCongress General Secretaries K C Venugopal organisation and Ramesh Chennithala state incharge assessed the mood in the state unit on Friday and convinced the leadership to be hopeful in its efforts and aggressive while campaigning assuring them that the Congress being the single largest Lok Sabha party in Maharashtra would get a good number of seats to contest in the Maharashtra Assembly elections However the thrust should be on merit excellent chances of winning while selecting the seats the leaders said Some presentations were made at the meetingState Congress president Nana Patole said that the seatsharing talks hadnrsquot started yet ldquoBut it was clarified by the Delhi leaders that the talks will happen only at the state level We will soon hold a meeting to discuss seat sharing with Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackerayrdquo His statement is seen as a caution to the allies who contact the Congress high command bypassing the state leadershipOne of the exminister attendees told midday that some complaints arising from the Lok Sabha sharing and the recent seatsharing statements of the allies cropped up at the Garware Club meeting but that wasnrsquot taken as a flash point An amicable solution of having a coordination committee of MVA partners was suggested In addition a special committee for seat sharing was proposed The number of seats to be asked from the allies will come at a later stage he said requesting anonymityFor MVA coordinationldquoEveryone is talking in different tones That creates confusion and unnecessary bad blood The MVA coordination committee will discuss and decide the line of statement so that the atmosphere remains healthierrdquo said the exminister ldquoWe will ensure that there will be no direct announcement of candidature like the Lok Sabha or any policy decisionrdquo he addedSenior Congress leaders at the meeting on Friday PicXThe meeting turned out to be an extension of the one Rahul Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge had convened in Delhi last month ldquoRahulji had asked for restraint and meritbased demands for seats He had promised to ensure a respectable number of seats not only for the Congress but also for its MVA partnersrdquo said the leaderFridayrsquos focus was also on going very aggressive against the Mahayuti NDA governmentldquoWe were asked to focus on the governmentrsquos failure and reach out to the people with it No stone will be left unturned to install the MVA governmentrdquo added the leaderNana Patole Maharashtra Congress presidentNo change of guardThe state leaders were told sternly that there would be no change in the Maharashtra and Mumbai unit presidentsrsquo offices ldquoWe were told very clearly to work in the same setuprdquo the leader said The clarity given by the high command means a great relief for the Mumbai chief Varsha Gaikwad whose ouster was demanded by a large section of city leaders Most of these leaders from rival camps were present at the meetingCrossvotersLater Venugopal told the reporters that the party had identified crossvoters MLAs in the Legislative Council elections ldquoAction will be taken against them soon You will know about itrdquo he saidGandhi to flag off campaignAccording to Patole Rahul Gandhi and Kharge will flag off the Assembly campaign in Mumbai on August 20 the birth anniversary of the late Rajiv Gandhi