MUMBAI: Congress workers are keen to contest the upcoming local body elections on their own steam but a final call is yet to be taken. This was stated by Ramesh Chennithala, All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Maharashtra, on Monday.
Chennithala was in Mumbai to attend political affairs committee meetings of the Congress’s state and Mumbai units. He was also non-committal on the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) joining the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition. Questions on this are being raised as MNS chief Raj Thackeray will team up with an MVA-led delegation that will meet chief electoral officer of Maharashtra, S Chokalingam, on Tuesday. The delegation will meet Chokalingam on alleged vote theft through the voters’ list in Maharashtra.
“Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut told me he had invited all the parties including BJP, the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, among others. Congress is participating in the multi-party delegation as the issue of ‘vote chori’ was raised by our leader Rahul Gandhi ji. We don’t know who all are participating in it,” Chennithala remarked.
Speculation has also been rife of a possible alliance between the Sena (UBT) and MNS. This has put the opposition-led MVA alliance in a spot as the Congress has reservations on the MNS’s stand against migrants.
Pressed further for a comment, Chennithala said there was no alliance with MNS. And, as far as he knew, there are only three parties — Congress, NCP (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT) – in the MVA. “We have not discussed anything about MNS as there is no proposal before us and no one has spoken to us about them. I want to make it very clear that there is no discussion on including any other party in the MVA,” he clarified.
Chennithala attended two meetings, of the state and Mumbai units of the Congress, on Monday. “There is a feeling among party workers to contest elections on our own. The sentiments were visible in both meetings but we have yet to take a final decision,” he said.