No differences in MVA, will fight Assembly polls together: Congress Maharashtra in-charge

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All-India Congress Committee (AICC) Maharashtra in-charge Ramesh Chennithala said on Thursday that there were no differences among the opposition allies and that they will together fight the upcoming Assembly elections, news agency ANI reported.

The former Kerala Home Minister also said two rounds of discussions over seat-sharing have been held so far between the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) parties, and the leaders of the alliance will hold another round of discussions on Saturday.

"MVA will fight the elections together. There are no differences. Two rounds of discussions have been held on seat sharing. On September 1, our leaders will hold another round of discussions," the four-time Member of Parliament (MP) told reporters in Nagpur.

When asked about the opposition's Chief Ministerial face, Chennithala, who is scheduled to attend a programme of a Congress leader in Yavatmal on Thursday evening, said, "Our face is MVA. We are fighting elections in the name of MVA. The Chief Minister will be decided after the elections. We had not projected any PM face during the Lok Sabha elections either."

He also did not specify is the Congress will fight on the maximum number of seats among the allies. "MVA will fight on the maximum number of seats in the election. We will stick to the dharma of alliance and take everyone along, he said."

The tenure of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly is scheduled to end in November. Elections to the 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly are scheduled to be held later this year though the Election Commission of India (ECI) is yet to announce the dates for it. On August 16, ECI announced the schedule of elections in Haryana and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir that will be held from September 18 to October 1 but did not clear the picture on the polls in Maharashtra. During the press conference, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said that the high demand for security forces in Jammu and Kashmir is the primary reason for not holding Maharashtra Assembly elections.

MVA ruled in the state from 2019 to 2022 when Eknath Shinde, the current Chief Minister, revolted and joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) along with a bunch of legislators. He then formed the Shiv Sena-BJP government in the state.

Ajit Pawar from NCP also revolted against his party chief and joined hands with BJP along with some of his party colleagues.

The state is now run by the Mahayuti alliance, comprising BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP.

(With ANI inputs)