'Maha' setback to MVA: Nana Patole tenders resignation as state Congress chief after assembly poll debacle

Nana Patole on Monday tendered his resignation as the Maharashtra Congress chief after the Maha Vikas Aghadi's (MVA) damning defeat in the state assembly elections. Patole could not meet Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Monday, India Today reported citing sources. 

Patole's resignation has not yet been accepted by the Congress high command, sources added. The ruling Mahayuti alliance blew MVA to smithereens in the Maharashtra elections.

Commenting on the results, Congress leader Supriya Shrinate said that Maharashtra has certainly not gone the grand old party's way.

"Maharashtra certainly hasn't gone our way, we are disappointed with what we are seeing in Maharashtra. We will go back to the drawing board, we will learn our lessons and we are reasonably confident that we will be able to deliver once again in Maharashtra," she said. 

The Mahayuti won 230 seats and secured 49.6 per cent of the vote share. The BJP bagged 132 seats, the Shiv Sena 57, and Ajit Pawar's NCP 41 seats.

The MVA won a total of 46 seats, with the Congress bagging 16 seats, Shiv Sena (UBT) getting 20, and the NCP (SP) winning on 16 seats. The MVA could get a vote share of only 35.3 per cent.

Nana Patole himself won from Sakoli by a measly margin of 208 votes against BJP's Avinash Brahmankar. In the 2019 assembly elections, Patole won from the seat by a decent margin of around 8,000 votes. 

Congress veterans in the state Prithviraj Chavan and Balasaheb Thorat lost from their bastions Karad South and Sangamner, respectively. Former Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh's son Dhiraj Deshmukh also lost from Latur Rural against BJP's Ramesh Kashiram Karad by a margin of 6,595 votes. 

Congress veteran Yashomati Chandrakant Thakur also lost against BJP's Rajesh Shriramji Wankhede in the Teosa constituency. 

But what led to such a rout after the Lok Sabha election boost? After the Lok Sabha election results, the Congress became overconfident and overdid its 'save the Constitution' plank and many of its candidates were left to fend for themselves as the Mahayuti upped the ante. 

Even though the Congress got the largest share of the pie at 108 seats, its leadership was hardly seen at the ground. Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge did only 7 and 9 rallies each and Priyanka Gandhi did only 3 roadshows in the state. 

(With inputs from Mausami Singh)