The Maharashtra elections are proving to be a challenge for all parties involved. As the ruling Mahayuti tries to ensure it overcomes the factors that saw its Lok Sabha score plummet to 17 out of 48, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is hoping to repeat its performance in the Lok Sabha (30 out of 48 seats) . ). The Congress which won the highest number of seats in this election, 13, is hoping that a Haryana-like situation does not happen again. The party was widely expected to win these elections – and opinion polls and exit polls agreed – but anti-Jat consolidation ended its efforts and the Bharatiya Janata Party won comfortably. Maharashtra Congress in-charge Ramesh Chennithala explained how he plans to achieve this.

Do you think the Haryana results have affected your momentum?

No way. Maharashtra is different. The environment is different. The problems are different. So you can’t compare. But we have learned some lessons from Haryana which will help us in Maharashtra.

Like what?

First, rebels must be avoided. Many rebels withdrew their candidacy. Important rebels. Second, there must be unity within the party. There is no difference between the leaders – nor between the partners of MVA. Absolute unity is assured.

Our analysis shows that there are more rebel candidates for the MVA than for the Mahayuti?

This calculation is wrong: there are 8,000 candidates for 288 seats. This is a special situation in Maharashtra due to the division of many political parties. But Mahayuti has more rebels than us. And most of the rebels in our case, the serious rebels, 80%, withdrew. This is our assessment. Those who did not withdraw, we suspended them. There is no such thing as a friendly fight at any cost. Sangli will not be repeated anywhere (in Lok Saba elections, a rebel, independent from Congress, defeated the candidate of the Shiv Sena-UBT alliance)

One of the things that the BJP understood very well is that the whole reservation issue went wrong in the 2024 elections. So in Haryana they referred to this whole subcategorization of SC/ST. It was implemented in this state. They also started the process in Maharashtra.

Subcategorization is an issue that needs to be discussed properly. I think different states have different problems. That’s a whole other question. You see, the fact is that our motto is to preserve the Constitution and the fundamental structure of the Constitution. The reason we bring it up is because their efforts (to overthrow it) are not completely abandoned. They won’t let him down. They are moving forward with the “One Day, One Nation, One Election” plan.

Many people thought that because Congress got maximum number of seats in Lok Sabha elections it will contest more seats but you are fielding only 101. Is there any problem you need to face within the party?

No, no. You see, the point is that when we are in a coalition, we have to satisfy our partners. This is the dharma of the coalition. You look at Mahayuti. Ten to fifteen BJP leaders are in the fray on Shinde’s (Shiv Sena) list and more than five people are contesting on behalf of Ajit Pawar’s party (NCP). But the candidates are proposed by the BJP. Very special situation. This means that the BJP wanted to swallow up all the alliance partners. On the contrary, we bring together all the coalition partners. CPM-2, CPI-1, PWP-2, Congress-103, then Shiv Sena, 94 years old and Sharad Pawar (NCP-SP), 87 years old. There is complete harmony between the alliance partners, which is not the case in Mahayuti. This is the difference between us and them.

You don’t have a face CM. They don’t have it either… although they seem to support Eknath Shinde, the outgoing CM, very, very strongly…

I don’t think so. They have a current chief minister. They don’t project it at all. He was not allocated appropriate seats. We have a better understanding between the coalition partners. As a result, MVA is more united.

So there had to be a discussion about the CM.

After the elections, we sit down and decide on the chief minister. Before the elections, we are not going to declare it. Our primary goal is to win. All other things related to the government and its face will be discussed after the elections.

The population is facing very serious problems. Farmer suicides – highest number in India. Cotton, soybean and onion producers all suffer from the central government’s trade policies. Unemployment is widespread on a large scale in Maharashtra. Rising prices (is a problem). Most of the big investments meant for Maharashtra have been transferred to Gujarat. People are very unhappy with these kinds of activities of the Modi-Shah government. Some regions are still very late.

Maratha leader Jarange Patil surprised everyone by withdrawing all his candidates at the last minute. Who will benefit?

It is the elections that will decide. We are for everyone. We are for the OBCs (other backward classes), we are for the Marathas. We do not think of dividing society. It is only by doing BJP. We are for everyone. This is why our leader called for a caste census. This is one of the assurances we have given to the people of Maharashtra.