Mumbai: Veteran Congress leaders and party workers are not only unhappy with the recent seat sharing formula with the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance partners but many of them are dejected over the party’ choice of the candidates.
The Congress list of candidates now stands at 103, while the NCP stands at 87 and Shiv Sena (UBT) at 84.
Congress insiders allege that despite pushing for strong and able candidates, the powers that be have ignored the pleas of the ground level party worker and in some seats of Mumbai and its surrounding areas have instead favoured candidates with no track record of their own.
“Around 23 seats are such that have ‘weak candidates’ meaning those seats have been allocated only to favour the alliance partners and not the Congress party,” said a veteran Congress leader. He pointed out names like Heera Devasi (who has been allotted a ticket from Colaba constituency) was never even a Congress office bearer or someone like Asif Zakaria from Bandra (W) who despite being nominated twice for MLA polls in the past had lost terribly. Another seat is that of Charkop which has been allotted to Yashwant Singh, less known candidate.
“Today the list does not even have a North Indian like ex-party workers Sanjay Nirupam or Kripashankar Singh to fetch the 50 lakh plus North Indian voters that the party represents in areas of Navi Mumbai, Palghar and Bhiwandi as well as in certain pockets of Maharashtra,” the Congress leader said. The alliance partners knowing this deliberately sidelined Nana Patole’s and other leaders’ requests to see that they got the best seats to contest.
Many Congressmen alleged that all of this is a ploy by the alliance partners themselves to see that they win from the best seats and lay claim to the post of the Chief Minister if the MVA comes to power. It makes no difference that the Congress is contesting from over 100 seats simply because most of the seats eventually do not work in favour of the party and the candidates are sure to lose in many.
Sachin Sawant, one of the Congress candidates who was allotted a ticket by the party from Andheri (west) returned the ticket in favour of his colleague Ashok Jadhav instead. He says it happens and ultimately doesn’t matter. “It is a good thing that the party considered you. The seat which I was demanding has gone to the Shiv Sena (UBT). So it is not the fault of our leadership. They took it themselves,” Sawant said.
Another Congress leader pointed that NCP and Shiv Sena have favoured their ground level workers. All parties have given tickets to their ex-councillors whereas the Congress has ignored all former councillors. “The ones who did get the tickets are those who are backed by people in the decision-making process. They have political godfathers and get adjusted in some way or the other. We don’t get adjusted. Local ground level leaders like me have been ignored due to which the Congress party might end up paying a heavy price,” said the leader.
Nizamudding Rayen, Spokesperson of Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC), said that the Congress was always the largest party and will be the largest one. “Despite what anyone says, the Congress will come back as the number one party in Maharashtra.”
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