Nagpur: The Congress is ready to fight the 2024 assembly polls independently “if forced to do so”, though priority will always be to join hands with secular forces, said Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Nana Patole on Wednesday.
On the CM’s post, Patole said, “Whenever there is an alliance, the party with the maximum number of MLAs must get the CM’s post.”
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15 May 2025
Patole also said seven public rallies of star Congress campaigners like Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra are being planned in Maharashtra as part of the Lok Sabha poll campaign next year.
Patole said, “The Congress wishes that all parties who are opposed to the BJP should join hands and fight the polls together. But as you saw even in 2014, everybody went their own way, so we have to be prepared for all situations.”
In 2014, all four major parties — Congress, NCP, BJP and the erstwhile united Shiv Sena under Uddhav Thackeray — had contested the assembly polls independently.
Patole, MLA from Sakoli, said the party’s gameplan for all such scenarios is ready. “We have plans A, B, C and much more. For every situation, our strategy has been decided but there is no way I am going to reveal anything now,” he said.
Part of the contingency plan includes an aggressive poll campaign. “Total seven public rallies will be held in Maharashtra. Rahul (Gandhi) will be part of it along with other star campaigners. Apart from Mumbai, rallies will be held in Nagpur, Amravati etc,” said Patole. “As soon as Karnataka polls end, the party’s focus will shift to Maharashtra,” added Patole.
On the CM’s post, Patole said, “In all fairness, whenever there is an alliance, the party with the maximum number of MLAs must get the CM post.”
Back in Nagpur, the CM poster-war got a new twist on Wednesday with Ajit Pawar’s supporters jumping into the fray. A day earlier, a poster projecting Devendra Fadnavis as future CM of Maharashtra had been put up. On Wednesday, local NCP leader Prashant Pawar put up hoardings naming Ajit Pawar as the next CM.
With recent political rumblings of a change of guard (CM) in Maharashtra, and possibility of Pawar defecting to BJP, something which has been denied by the latter, such ‘CM posters’ are being put up by party workers.
Commenting on the issue, BJP state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule said, “It is natural for every party worker to have aspirations for their leader. BJP workers will want Fadnavis (as CM), Shiv Sena will say (Eknath) Shinde, and NCP may want Ajit dada, Supriya Sule or Jayant Patil.” Bawankule, however, kept mum on who will be their alliance’s CM candidate.
