Maharashtra Assembly election: Mahayuti govt making false promises, says Congress state in-charge

PIC/PTI

All India Congress Committee (AICC) state in-charge Ramesh Chennithala accused the Mahayuti government of "misleading" people and making "false promises" a day after the Maharashtra Assembly election schedule was announced, news agency ANI reported.

Chennithala was speaking to media in Delhi after attending a meeting of the Congress screening committee, called to likely decide the candidates for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly election.

The state in-charge said that several topics were discussed on Wednesday, October 16. "We will have to chair one more meeting. A CEC (Central Election Committee) meeting will be there after this," he said.

Chennithala also lashed out at the Eknath Shinde-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, saying, "The Mahayuti (alliance) is giving fake promises to people. They were in power for a long time but until now they did not take any decisions. Now as the Maharashtra Assembly election is coming, how come the cabinet took 200 decisions? They (Mahayuti) are trying to mislead the people, they don't have to implement this [promises] so they are making false promises."

After the meeting, Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Maharashtra Assembly and Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar also hit out at the Mahayuti government, stated ANI. "Every state is being looted and wealth is being deposited in Gujarat. Maharashtra is also going to be looted the same way and 80 per cent of contractors from Gujarat are working in Maharashtra, so Marathi people are hurt."

Earlier in the day during a press conference, Chief Minister Shinde said, "Our two years of work and performance is the face of our alliance. The MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi) should announce their face as the leader of the opposition. We are presenting our two-year performance card. It is not easy to present your report card after two years of government because to produce such a detailed report card, the government has to perform well."

His deputy Devendra Fadnavis was also present at the press conference, stated ANI.

288 seats in fray for Maharashtra Assembly election

The election for the 288-member assembly in Maharashtra would will be held in a single phase on November 20, with the counting of votes to take place three days later.

In the 2019, Maharashtra Assembly election, the Congress and undivided Shiv Sena had won 154 out of 288 seats. They later formed MVA with undivided Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). However, this time, following the split in the two parties, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) and Congress are in alliance to counter the Mahayuti alliance, comprising Shiv Sena headed by CM Shinde, Ajit Pawar's NCP and BJP.

In the Lok Sabha election held this year, MVA won 30 of the state's 48 Lok Sabha seats while the ruling alliance won 17. One seat went to an Independent candidate.

(With ANI inputs)