Following the recent split in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Prithviraj Chavan, a prominent Congress leader and the former chief minister of Maharashtra, declared that his party will lead the opposition in Maharashtra. He also announced that his party would contest in the Lok Sabha elections next year as a member of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition.
In addition, he expressed confidence that the Congress will not divide like it did with the Shiv Sena and the NCP. According to Chavan, the opposition coalition at the federal level is taking shape in accordance with the strategy used by the then-opposition led by J P Narayan to dethrone Indira Gandhi in 1977.
He (Narayan) defeated us (Congress) but the principle remains. He forged a broad-based alliance of opposition parties who were opposed to Indira Gandhi. They did not fight about who will lead the alliance. Mr J P Narain led the alliance but he was not the PM candidate, Chavan said.
The opposition alliance that is being shaped up now is going in that direction, he said. If we adopt this strategy and set aside the issue of the prime ministerial face considering that our first objective is to defeat the BJP, saving democracy and Constitution, we can do this, the Congress leader said.
Chavan said that it is our endeavour that the opposition fields a joint candidate against the BJP and the fight throughout the country is one-against-one in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Talking about the fast-paced developments in Maharashtra politics and whether the Congress would take the lead of the MVA, Chavan said there have been two major splits in two major components of the MVA the Shiv Sena and the NCP and after that, the Congress has emerged as the largest constituent of the coalition.
The Congress will naturally take the lead, it will become the principal opposition party, a Congress person will probably become the leader of the opposition. The numbers have shrunk from the time we were in the government because there have been two splits, but whatever the numbers, our parties are large, a large number of people support us on the ground, he said.
Congress will lead the opposition and we will be an effective opposition (in Maharashtra), he stressed. His remarks come days after NCP chief Sharad Pawar faced a revolt by his nephew Ajit Pawar who along with eight other leaders joined the Eknath Shinde-led government.
In a surprising move, Ajit Pawar took oath as the deputy chief minister, while eight legislators of his Nationalist Congress Party took oath as ministers in the government led by the Shiv Sena (Shinde) and the BJP.