New Delhi: Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi is reportedly concerned over “favouritism” in the suggested list of candidates from the party for the upcoming Assembly elections in Maharashtra, a media report said.
Rahul has been said to be upset with the screening committee’s choice of names submitted to the Congress Election Committee (CEC) and he raised the matter in the meeting held on Friday. As per the report, the Congress leader highlighted that the list of candidates provided seemed to “favour” certain Congress leaders from the State.
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Sat 21 Dec. 2024
He also questioned the allotment of Congress stronghold seats to Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena in regions like Vidarbha and Mumbai under the seat-sharing agreement. The Maha Vikas Aghadi — constituting Sharad Pawar’s NCP, Uddhav’s Shiv Sena, and Congress — has agreed to an 85-85-85 seat-sharing formula for the upcoming elections to the 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
Reportedly, Rahul was also unhappy over the delay in finalising the seat-sharing agreement between MVA allies. Congress leaders from the State failed to put across their points strongly, which resulted in the Congress bagging a lower number of seats than expected, Gandhi said at the Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting held at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi.
Congress and Shiv Sena have been at loggerheads over some seats in several regions within Mumbai and in the Vidarbha region, including Byculla, Versova, Nagpur South, Ramtek, and Dhamangaon Railway.
The seat-sharing tussle is still underway on 18 of the 288 seats. Samajwadi Party leader and MLA Abu Asim Azmi jumped into the seat-sharing tussle on Friday, threatening to field candidates on 25 seats if the opposition alliance fails to keep aside five seats for his party’s candidates. Samajwadi Party is also a part of the MVA.
The election to the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly will happen in a single phase on November 20 and results will be declared on November 23.
