MVA would have won more seats had Congress contested more: Patole

Mumbai: After the impressive win in the Lok Sabha polls, there is a race among the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) parties to claim credit for the success. Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole on Friday claimed that the MVA would have been bigger had his party contested more seats.

His statement is seen as a jibe towards the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, which contested the highest number of seats (21) among the MVA allies, but ended up with only nine wins. On the contrary, the Congress contested 17 seats and won 13 seats.

Speaking in the felicitation ceremony of newly elected MPs including Vishal Patil, who had contested independently from the Sangli Lok Sabha seat, Patole said that the Congress wanted to contest six to seven more seats. “But we were not given those seats. If we would have contested those seats, it would have benefited the MVA,” he said.

In the MVA seat sharing arrangement, the Sangli seat was given to Shiv Sena UBT, due to which Vishal Patil rebelled and contested as an independent.

Patole said the Congress had also staked a claim on the Mumbai North West, where the Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Amol Kirtikar was fielded. Besides this, they also wanted the Mumbai South Central seat for Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad.

In the closest fight of the Mumbai North West seat, Eknath Shinde led Shiv Sena candidate Ravindra Waikar defeated Amol Kirtikar by 48 votes.

Congress’s Maharashtra in-charge Ramesh Chennithala said the MVA will contest the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly election together and they will add more small parties in order to defeat the BJP.

Chennithala said that the coalition politics is not easy. By holding discussions with all parties, the MVA was strengthened and contested elections together.  “We were united to defeat the dictatorial BJP government. People have placed their faith in the Congress party and MVA,” he said.

When asked whether the Congress party would seek seats to contest in the assembly polls as per their current strength in Maharashtra Assembly, Chennithala said that they are yet to start discussion over the assembly election.

Congress MLA Vishwajeet Kadam, who played a key role in party's Sangli win, told the reporters the purpose of the MVA to defeat the BJP. After winning the Sangli Lok Sabha seat, Vishal Patil had already extended his support to the Congress and MVA, he said.

When asked are you planning to meet Uddhav Thackeray who had openly expressed unhappiness over Congress not following the coalition dharma in Sangli, the Sangli MLA said that he has high regards for Uddhav Thackeray, who is leading the state in difficult times. "I respect Uddhav Thackeray, who is the senior leader of Maharashtra. I admire him. He is a fatherly figure for all of us. We are like his sons.  Of course, we will take his appointment and go to meet him to take his blessings,” said Kadam.