MVA: Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan on Thursday (July 13) said that his party would contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition and would lead the Opposition in the state, following NCP’s split this earlier this month.
He exuded confidence that his party would not undergo any split as witnessed with the ally partners Shiv Sena (which split last year) and NCP (that broke away earlier this month).
Chavan said that at the national level, the opposition alliance was taking shape on the lines of the principle adopted by the then opposition under J P Narayan to defeat Indira Gandhi in 1977.
"He (Narayan) defeated us (Congress) but the principle remains. He forged a broad-based alliance of opposition parties who were opposed to Indira Gandhi. They did not fight about who will lead the alliance. Mr J P Narain led the alliance but he was not the PM candidate," Chavan said, adding that the Opposition alliance which is being put impetus on is moving forward in that direction.
"If we adopt this strategy and set aside the issue of the prime ministerial face considering that our first objective is to defeat the BJP, saving democracy and Constitution, we can do this," the Congress leader said. Chavan said that it is the party’s endeavour is that the joint Opposition fields a candidate against the BJP and that the fight throughout the country is one-against-one in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Maharashtra political storm
Speaking about the Maharashtra political storm recently in which NCP split into two following Ajit Pawar’s joining into the Shinde-Fadnavis-led state government, Chavan said that afte the factionalism in the Sharad Pawar led party, Congress has emerged as the largest constituent of the coalition.
"The Congress will naturally take the lead, it will become the principal opposition party, a Congress person will probably become the leader of the opposition. The numbers have shrunk from the time we were in the government because there have been two splits, but whatever the numbers, our parties are large, a large number of people support us on the ground," he said.
"The Congress will lead the opposition and we will be an effective opposition (in Maharashtra)," he stressed.
In a surprising move, Ajit Pawar took oath as the deputy chief minister, while eight legislators of his Nationalist Congress Party took oath as ministers in the government led by the Shiv Sena (Shinde) and the BJP.
Congress has been a part of the MVA comprising Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction), NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) and itself.
Chavan, who was the chief minister of Maharashtra between November 2010 and September 2014, said there are no two ways about it that after this split in the NCP, the Congress has emerged as the largest party in the MVA.
'No split in Congress'
"There will be no split in the Congress. The Congress will have to lead opposition unity in Maharashtra. With the meeting in Delhi, it has become absolutely clear that we will fight the Lok Sabha elections as MVA, the seat sharing will be done later," he said.
"We had started an exercise (for seat sharing) but due to the split in the NCP, a new beginning has to be made," he said.
Senior Congress leaders from Maharashtra had met the party top brass this Tuesday and discussed the political situation in the wake of the split in the NCP.
Asked whether the MVA will continue till 2024, Chavan said, "There is no reason to ask this question. We have said a number times that the MVA was constituted for a particular purpose and that purpose was to defeat the communal forces led by BJP and to stop the march towards dictatorship that the Modi government is leading the country to."
"These objectives remain, whoever comes with us, we will fight (together), there are four-five small parties, we appeal to them to join us. There will be a seat sharing formula worked out over a period of time," he said.
(With PTI inputs)
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