Unseating Eknath Shinde govt more important for MVA than discussing CM face: Maharashtra Congress chief

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State Congress president Nana Patole on Friday said unseating the Eknath Shinde government in the upcoming assembly polls was more important for the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) than discussing who will be the opposition alliance's chief ministerial face, news agency PTI reported.

Talking to PTI, Patole said there is tremendous unrest among all the sections of the society against the Eknath Shinde government, and people in Maharashtra want the Congress to come back to power.

"We are fighting to protect the ideology of Maharashtra. Our aim is to defeat the Eknath Shinde government and not fight for the CM post," Patole emphasised.

"People want the Congress to return to power. We have our presence in every region. Congress is in the DNA of Maharashtra even though the party has seen several ups and downs in the state," Patole said. The Maharashtra Congress chief added that the seat sharing talks in MVA, which comprises the Congress, the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (SP) and Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena (UBT), will begin after the Ganeshotsav 2024 festivities, which commence on Saturday.

In the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, the Congress won the maximum number of seats - 13 out of 48 - owing to the "wrong policies" of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led ruling alliance and also because Patole's party "highlighted issues concerning farmers, youth, education, health and transport sectors", he said.

Patole also clarified on Thackeray's absence during Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's public events in Sangli and said, "It was not a political programme but a family event where the statue of senior Congress leader Patangrao Kadam was unveiled. Kadam's son and Congress leader Vishwajit invited everyone for the programme. Uddhav Thackeray had prior engagements so he expressed his inability to be present. There is no politics involved." While no leader of Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) was present at the event, Pawar and other opposition members were at Sangli.

Patole also denied talks of the Congress trying to project itself as the "big brother" in MVA, adding that "merit will be the basis for seat adjustments".

"There are no differences between us. There is no big brother or small brother here. We will sit together and decide on who fights from which seat," Patole said, brushing aside talks of Shiv Sena (UBT) wanting to contest on 22 of the total 36 assembly seats in Mumbai. "There has been no discussion yet. Shiv Sena (UBT) has not declared the number of seats or candidates it wants to contest on. It is a media game," said Patole.

He also asserted that MVA will recover its Lok Sabha losses in the Mumbai and Konkan belt in the upcoming polls. These regions account for more than 70 assembly seats.

Patole said the Badlapur school sexual assault case and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue collapse incident in Malvan last month had "completely exposed" the ruling alliance in Maharashtra.

(With PTI inputs)