19 July,2024 11:00 AM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
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Congress will hold a key meeting today in Mumbai to plan for the forthcoming Maharashtra assembly elections. Senior state leaders will attend the session, which will be headed by General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal and AICC Incharge of Maharashtra Ramesh Chenithalla.
In the most recent parliamentary elections, Congress emerged as the state's largest party, with 13 Lok Sabha MPs. The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) won 30 of Maharashtra's 48 constituencies, alongside the Shiv Sena UBT's 9 and the NCP (Pawar's 8 MPs).
According to a prominent Congress leader, the meeting would cover not just the assembly election strategy, but also Congress' role in the MVA coalition. With 38 MLAs, Congress is the largest party in Maharashtra's Assembly. The NCP and Shiv Sena have divided since the last assembly election, lowering their numbers. As a result, Congress will also discuss regions, seats, and numbers for the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly Elections.
The first round of meetings will be held in the morning in the Wankhede Stadium Conference Hall, followed by a second session in the afternoon at the party's Tilak Bhawan offices.
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MVA achieved success in Maharashtra in the recent Lok Sabha elections, winning 30 of 48 seats. Congress hopes to win a sizable share of the assembly elections, focussing on winnable seats in Vidarbha, North Maharashtra, and Marathwada.
The INDIA bloc outperformed the NDA in Western Maharashtra, receiving 47.8 per cent of the vote to the NDA's 43.2 per cent. In Vidarbha, the INDIA bloc garnered 46 per cent of the vote, with the NDA receiving 37.1 per cent. The INDIA alliance won 44.7 per cent of the vote in Marathwada, while the NDA received 29 per cent.
Meanwhile, on Friday, Sanjay Raut, while answering a question on the seat-sharing of Maha Vikas Aghadi, said that all three constituents of the alliance are major parties and are conducting their surveys and assessments on their seats.
"All three parties are major parties and they are doing assessments on their respective seats. Every party has the right to decide what their strength is in all the seats and where we can fight. After assessing that, finally, we will sit together and then there will be an exchange of seats," Raut told PTI.
He added, "No decision has been taken on that but Mumbai has always been the stronghold of the Shiv Sena. Whether it is the Mumbai Municipal Corporation or the most Assembly or Lok Sabha seats, we have been winning. Congress gets more seats. The Nationalist Congress Party gets more seats in West Maharashtra. Sharad Pawar's people all have their influence. Shiv Sena has always had influence in Mumbai. So the seat sharing will be done accordingly."
