Maharashtra elections 2024: Congress to interview possible candidates for assembly polls, Patole claims 'no rift' within MVA

Despite the ongoing seat-sharing talks between the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies in Maharashtra, Congress will interview probable candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in the state. The party has received total 1,688 applications so far.

Congress is likely to take a call when the MVA allies arrive on a final consensus vis-a-vis seat-sharing, India Today reported citing sources. The party has asked MLA Sangram Thopate and MLC Satej Patil to interview the probable Mumbai candidates.

34 other party functionaries will interview the rest of the contendors. The interviews will be conducted from October 1-8 and reports will be submitted by October 10, as per sources. Meanwhile, MVA leaders held a meeting on Monday to finalise the seat-sharing deal and another meeting is scheduled for Tuesday. 

After the meeting, Congress state president Nana Patole said that the alliance will announce 200 candidates before Dussehra. "We will announce 200 candidates before Dussehra. There is no rift in the alliance partners as speculated by the media," Patole said. 

Contrary to Patole's "no rift" claim, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) state secretary Dr. Uday Narkar has expressed frustration over the unresolved seat-sharing talks. He said that the CPI (M) is preparing to contest on 12 seats in the upcoming Maharashtra elections.

In an interview with The Indian Express, Dr. Narkar said that the party hoped to contest at least one seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as part of the MVA. "We chose not to contest out of our commitment to defeat the BJP, trusting that we would be accommodated in the Assembly elections. However, we are still awaiting clear assurances," he said. 

The MVA is confident of getting a good score in the assembly elections, especially given its performance in the Lok Sabha polls.

In 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the MVA won 30 out of the 48 seats in Maharashtra. Of this, the Congress won 13 seats whereas NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) won 8 seats. The Shiv Sena (UBT), on the other hand, won a total of 9 seats.