Rahul Gandhi ‘upset’ over ‘favouritism’ in Congress candidates’ selection for Maharashtra polls: Report

Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, has reportedly expressed his disappointment over the alleged ‘favouritism’ in the suggested list of Congress leaders for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections 2024, scheduled on November 20.

Of the 85 seats that the Congress is contesting, the party has released the names of 48 candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls. Rahul Gandhi highlighted that the list of candidate names submitted in the Congress Election Committee (CEC) meeting appeared to “favour” certain Maharashtra Congress leaders, India Today reported some sources as saying.

Rahul Gandhi also questioned about the allocation of certain Congress strongholds to Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena in areas such as Vidarbha and Mumbai as part of the seat-sharing agreement of the Maha Vikas Aghadi(MVA) alliance.

The MVA alliance comprises of Congress, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) and Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP), who reached a consensus of contesting 85 seats each, in the polls.

The Uddhav Sena has declared candidates for 65 seats, while Congress has named candidates for 48 seats, and the NCP has announced candidates for 45 seats.

According to the UBT’s first list, Uddhav Thackeray’s son Aaditya Thackeray would be contesting the polls from Mumbai’s Worli. Meanwhile Kedar Dighe, the nephew of late Shiv Sena leader Anand Dighe, has been fielded from Thane’s Kopri-Panchpakhadi seat, where CM Eknath Shinde is in the fray. Other key names include Rajan Vichare who is contesting from the Thane seat, and Varun Sardesai from Bandra East.

Maharashtra Assembly Polls: Seat sharing tussle

While Congress’s Wadettiwar may have announced that ‘the problem of seat sharing has been resolved’, the tussle is still underway on 18 of the 288 seats as Samajwadi Party leader and MLA Abu Asim Azmi threatened to field candidates on 25 seats if the opposition alliance failed to keep aside five seats for his party’s candidates. The Samajwadi Party is also a part of the MVA.

The results for the election to 288-member Maharashtra Assembly will be declared on November 23.