Congress Sees New Opportunity in Maharashtra, Gears Up To Reclaim Renewed Space

Former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Ashok Chavan, announced on Tuesday that the Congress Party will reclaim its space in the state's politics due to the current political conditions in the state. Chavan made the statement following a meeting with senior party leaders from the state in Delhi.

“Given the prevailing political conditions in the state, the Congress has a renewed space in Maharashtra politics and the party leadership has decided to reclaim the party's space in the state politics,” Chavan said.

Chavan denies commenting on who'd be the LoP

However, Chavan declined to comment on the possible leader of the opposition in the state assembly or reveal any discussions or deliberations on the matter.

After a faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Ajit Pawar switched to join hands with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the Congress emerged as the largest opposition party in Maharashtra and staked a claim to the post of Leader of Opposition in the state assembly. However, there are at least five claimants for the post, including the current Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Nana Patole.

Kharge, Gandhi in attendance at the meeting

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi attended the meeting at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters, along with AICC in-charge for Maharashtra H K Patil, PCC chief Nana Patole, and senior party leaders Sushilkumar Shinde, Ashok Chavan, and Prithviraj Chavan.

The party is also in a position to stake a claim on the post in the state legislative council, and the issue was expected to be discussed at the meeting. However, the leaders stated that they only discussed the aftermath of the NCP split and how it will affect the party's prospects in the state ahead of Lok Sabha elections.

Congress attacks BJP over Foxconn withdrawing from chip JV

Meanwhile, MPCC spokesperson Atul Londhe criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis over the issue of Foxconn backing off from the semiconductor project.

"The Vedanta-Foxconn Semiconductor project was proposed near Pune, but it was shifted to Gujarat for political gain ahead of Gujarat assembly elections. Now, this project will not materialise in Gujarat also. The MVA government was prepared to give all the concessions and facilities, yet the project meant for Maharashtra was taken to Gujarat, and now it appears that it won't see the light of the day there also. This is a huge loss for Maharashtra as well as the country. That is the reason why Modi is harmful to the country and Fadnavis is harmful to the state," Londhe said.