NEW DELHI: The Congress asserted that there were no differences in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition, and the final seat-sharing arrangement among its constituents will be out by Saturday evening.
The party made the assertion after its central election committee met at the AICC headquarters here on Friday to deliberate on the candidates’ names for the November 20 Maharashtra assembly polls.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, and AICC general secretary, organisation, K C Venugopal, were among those who attended the meeting.
All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge for Maharashtra Ramesh Chennithala, state Congress chief Nana Patole, and other leaders from the state, including Balasaheb Thorat, were also present.
Speaking with reporters after the meeting, Chennithala said the Congress’ central election committee held a discussion on the remaining seats of Maharashtra.
He said the second list of party candidates will be released very soon, and the complete list will be out by Saturday evening.
“The MVA is contesting unitedly, and we have no differences,” Chennithala said.
When there is an alliance, there are discussions over seat-sharing, but tomorrow the whole list will be out, he added.
“We will fight together to realise the dreams of the people of Maharashtra. We are confident that MVA will form the government. People are ready to throw out this corrupt government,” Chennithala said.
The performance of the Lok Sabha polls would be repeated, he added.
Patole said the MVA will perform better in the assembly polls than in the Lok Sabha polls, and the MVA will form a full majority government.
Others present at the meeting of the party’s central election committee included its members Ambika Soni, Madhusudan Mistry, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, T S Singh Deo, Amee Yajnik, P L Punia, and K J George.
“We, the MVA, are all set to sweep the upcoming assembly elections,” Venugopal said in a post on X after the deliberations. He also shared pictures of the CEC meeting on the microblogging platform.
The Congress announced its first list of 48 candidates for the Maharashtra polls on Thursday, fielding Patole from Sakoli, former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan from Karad South, and Leader of Opposition in the outgoing Assembly Vijay Wadettiwar from Brahmapuri.
The opposition party has retained 25 incumbent MLAs in its first list of nominees.
The list came a day after the MVA of the Congress, NCP (SP), and Shiv Sena (UBT) announced that they would contest 85 seats each in the November 20 polls. Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut later said there was a consensus on 270 of the 288 seats between the MVA constituents.
In its first list, the Congress has fielded former ministers Nitin Raut and Thorat from Nagpur North and Sangamner, respectively, Jyoti Eknath Gaikwad from Dharavi, Amit Deshmukh from Latur City, and Dheeraj Deshmukh from Latur Rural.
