Maharashtra: Strategic Move or Pressure Tactics? Congress Seeks Candidates From All 288 Seats for Assembly Polls

Ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections, all political parties are gearing up for the contest. Following its success in the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress party is also in high spirits. Consequently, the Congress has called for applications from prospective candidates in all 288 constituencies in the state. This move has raised questions about whether this is a strategic maneuver by the Congress or a form of pressure politics within the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance.

In the recent Lok Sabha elections, the Congress won the most seats in Maharashtra, securing 13 seats, with an additional independent candidate, who had rebelled from Congress, also joining the party after winning. This gives the Congress a total of 14 MPs from the state. With this strength, the Congress is aiming to contest the maximum number of seats in the Assembly elections on behalf of the MVA. To prepare, the Congress has begun soliciting applications from interested candidates in all 288 constituencies, laying out its organizational strategy.

The Congress has sent letters to potential candidates, stating that general elections in the state are expected to be held in September-October 2024. As per the directives of State President Nana Patole, the process of inviting candidacy applications from party aspirants has commenced. The letter includes a sample application form for the interested candidates.

Candidates are instructed to submit their applications to the State Congress Committee office by August 10, 2024. Along with their application, candidates from the general category must submit a party fund fee of INR 20,000, while candidates from scheduled castes, tribes, and women must submit INR 10,000. This fee can be paid either in cash or via a Demand Draft (DD) in the name of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee or submitted to the district committee.

Applications collected by the district Congress committees should be submitted to the state office with the accompanying party fund before the specified date. The state Congress has directed all office bearers and workers to ensure that this information reaches all prospective candidates in their respective districts.

Senior Congress leaders have advised state leaders to contest the Assembly elections as part of the MVA. The MVA achieved significant success in the Lok Sabha elections, winning 31 out of 48 seats in the state. Of these, the Congress secured the most seats with 13 wins, followed by Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, which contested 21 seats and won 9, and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which contested 10 seats and won 8.