Mumbai: MPCC Chief Nana Patole Confident Congress Will Top State Assembly, Criticises Maharashtra Government’s Performance

Mumbai: Displaying exuberance over the performance in the recent Lok Sabha elections, a confident MPCC chief Nana Patole said that the Congress was going to be the single largest party in the upcoming state assembly elections.

Participating in FPJ Dialogue on Saturday, Patole said the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) was going to win 190-200 seats in view of the current mood among the electorate. The present state of affairs in Maharashtra has gone out of control. Schemes such as Majhi Ladki Bahin are not going to make any difference (for the ruling party), he said adding, whatever amount of loan that the government is raising to implement such schemes, is going to make things difficult for them.

The discussion between the MVA partners is going smoothly and we are going to have a meeting on August 27. The discussion will be on 133 seats since 155 seats were won by the three partners Congress 45, Shiv Sena 56 and NCP 54 in the 2019 state assembly elections, Patole said answering a question about the seat-sharing formula.

There can be some changes while discussing the seat allocation considering the presence of each partner in a particular region. The Congress is going to take maximum in Vidarbha followed by Marathwada and North Maharashtra. Some seats in Western Maharashtra are traditionally with us, he said.

Speaking about the status of Maharashtra, he said the state of Gujarat was benefiting by usurping maximum in terms of investment and new projects. Besides, the menace of drugs is increasing at disturbing proportions. The younger generation in big cities is falling into this trap and an increased number of cases of hit and run and molestation could have a bearing on it, Patole said.

The increasing number of sexual assaults against women has become a worrisome issue and as many as 10,000 women have been the victims of such cases, he said and alleged that the crime rate was also very high. Thane with incidents like Badlapur and some more has become a hotspot of criminal activities.

Maharashtra is no longer a most preferred state as it depends on heavy borrowings for running the state government and the schemes launched in recent times. Even the cost of Samruddhi Corridor has increased, he claimed. They criticised the quality of the construction of the infrastructure projects and claimed some more issues might come up with the Atal Setu. I am going to visit the bridge soon, he said.