This is how Congress won seats by excluding Nana Patole.
The nomination process for the Maharashtra assembly elections has started, but the internal debate over seat allocation continues in the Maha Vikas Aghadi. The Congress is entangled in the seat-sharing issue and Uddhav Thackeray is said to be angry. Seeing Uddhav’s displeasure, the Congress high command has taken action to sideline Nana Patole and put him in charge of resolving the Balasaheb Thorat issue.
It is reported that the Shiv Sena (Uddhav) has made it clear that it will not negotiate with Congress president Nan Patole on the seat-sharing issue. Shiv Sena (Uddhav) feels that Nana Patole is deliberately not letting the seat-sharing issue be resolved.
The desire to become a CM is dominant.
Nana Patole left the BJP in 2018 and joined the Congress. Nana became a provincial councilor in the 2019 election. When Uddhav became the Chief Minister, Nana was appointed Speaker of the Assembly. Nana served as the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker for two years, but after lobbying in Delhi, he became the state president.
Within months of Nana’s resignation as Speaker, the Uddhav government collapsed. In the 2024 elections, the Congress won fewer seats than Uddhav. However, the Congress managed to win more seats than the Shiv Sena (UBT).
Ever since this Congress show, Nana Patole has been aspiring to become the chief minister. It is said that Nana is trying to win more seats in order to ascend to the chief minister’s position after the elections.
Vidarbha and Mumbai in trouble
Nana Patole is from Vidarbha and he is creating a problem here. Congress is not in favor of giving more shares to Shiv Sena (UBT) in Vidarbha. Vidarbha has a total of 62 assembly seats. In 2019, Congress contested 47 seats here and won 15.
The Congress is also trying to contest more than 45 seats this time. The Shiv Sena (UBT) is seeking seats near Ramtek and Nagpur from the Congress.
Similarly, Nana Patole has also demanded the Mumbai seat, which is the traditional seat of the Shiv Sena Bashram (UBT).
Can Balasaheb Thorat defeat Raita?
At the last minute, Congress entrusted the responsibility of resolving the dispute to former president and veteran leader Bala Saheb Thorat. Thorat was the Congress president when Maha Vikas Aghadi was formed. He shares a good rapport with Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar.
However, it is said that this will not be easy for them. There are two reasons for this.
1. It is difficult to say that even if Thorat and the Congress high command gave up any seat from Vidarbha, Nana would have easily agreed. The Sangli seat was won by the Shiv Sena (UBT) in the 2024 elections, but Congress leader Vishal Patil is contesting as an independent candidate. Shiv Sena (UBT) finished third here. After the elections, Vishal returned to Congress.
2. Questions about timing were also raised. Some leaders of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress are said to have been angry with Nana Patole for a long time. However, the party did not make a decision at that time. The nomination process has now begun. Under such circumstances, the party has little time left for crisis management. If the crisis is not handled well, the parties concerned will bear direct losses.
This match happened because of Haryana’s Hooda
The Congress party recently lost the Haryana elections. One of the reasons for the failure was local bias in favor of local leaders. The party cannot ally with either AAP or INLD due to the presence of local Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s faction.
Tickets were distributed only at Hooda’s behest and as a result the election became polarized and the Congress lost the contest it had won.
