Ramesh Chennithala: Our motto is to preserve the Constitution and its basic structure

Maharashtra elections pose challenges for ruling Mahayuti and MVA, with Congress aiming for unity and learning from past mistakes amid candidate disputes.

The Maharashtra elections are proving to be a challenge for all sides in the fray. While the ruling Mahayuti is trying to ensure that it overcomes the factors that brought down its tally in the Lok Sabha to 17 out of 48, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is hoping that it can repeat its Lok Sabha performance (30 of 48 seats). The Congress which won the largest number of seats in that election, 13, is hoping that a Haryana like situation doesn’t arise again. The party was widely expected to win that election -- and opinion polls and exit polls agreed -- but anti-Jat consolidation put paid to its efforts, and the Bharatiya Janata Party won comfortably. The Congress’ Maharashtra in-charge Ramesh Chennithala explained how it plans to ensure that.

Ramesh Chennithala: Our motto is to preserve the Constitution and its basic structure

Do you think that the Haryana results affected your momentum?

Not at all. Maharashtra is different. The environment is different. Issues are different. So you cannot compare . But we learned some lessons from Haryana that will help us in Maharashtra.

Like what?

One, rebels should be avoided. Many rebels have withdrawn their nominations. Important rebels. Two, there has to be unity in the party . There are no differences among the leaders -- and also between MVA partners. Absolute unity is ensured.

Our analysis shows that there are more rebel candidates for the MVA than the Mahayuti?

That arithmetic is not correct.There are 8,000 candidates for 288 seats. That’s a peculiar situation in Maharashtra because of the split in many political parties. But Mahayuti has more rebels than us . And most of the rebels in our case, the serious rebels, 80%, have withdrawn. That is our assessment. Those who have not withdrawn, we have suspended. There is no friendly fight at any cost. Sangli will not be repeated anywhere (in the Lok Saba election, a rebel, a Congress independent, defeated the alliance’s candidate from the Shiv Sena-UBT)

One of the things the BJP has understood very well was that the whole reservation issue played out badly in the 2024 elections. So in Haryana they referred this whole sub-categorisation of SC/STs. It has been implemented in that state. They have also started the process in Maharashtra.

Sub-categorisation is an issue that has to be discussed properly. I think that different states have different issues. That is a different issue altogether. See, the point is that our motto is to preserve the Constitution and the basic structure of the Constitution. Why we are raising it is that their effort (at subverting it) is not completely dropped. They are not dropping it. They are going ahead with the one day, one nation, one election plan.

Many people thought because Congress got the maximum number of seats in the Lok Sabha election, it would contest more seats but you are contesting only 101. Is there a problem that you have to deal with within the party?

No, no. See, the point is that when we are in a coalition, we have to satisfy partners. That is the coalition dharma. You look at Mahayuti. 10 to 15 BJP leaders are contesting in the list of Shinde (the Shiv Sena) and more than five people are contesting in the name of Ajit Pawar’s party (NCP). But the candidates are given by the BJP. Very peculiar situation. That means BJP wanted to swallow all the alliance partners. On the contrary, we are taking all the coalition partners together. CPM-2, CPI-1, PWP-2, Congress-103, then Shiv Sena, 94 and Sharad Pawar (NCP-SP), 87. There is complete harmony among alliance partners, which is not seen in Mahayuti. That is the difference between us and them.

You don’t have a CM face. They also don’t have… although they seem to be backing Eknath Shinde , the incumbent CM very, very strongly...

I don’t think so. They have a present Chief Minister. They are not projecting him at all. He has not been given proper seats. We have better understanding among the coalition partners. So, MVA is more united .

There must have been some discussion on the CM, then.

After election, we will sit down and decide the Chief Minister. Before election, we are not going to declare it. Our prime objective is to win. All other things related to the government and face of the government will be discussed after election.

There are very serious issues facing by the people. Farmer suicides -- the most in India. Cotton farmers, soybean farmers and onion farmers, are all suffering because of the trade policy of the central government. Unemployment is there on a large scale in Maharashtra. Price rise (is a problem). Most of the big investments coming to Maharashtra have been taken to Gujarat. People are very upset with this kind of activities by the Modi-Shah government. Some areas are still very backward.

Maratha leader Jarange Patil surprised everyone by withdrawing all his candidates at the last minute. Who will that benefit?

That the election will decide.We are for everybody. We are for OBC (other backward classes), we are for Marathas. We are not thinking for dividing the society. That is only by doing BJP. We are for all. That is why our leader has given the call for a caste census. That is one of the guarantees which we have given to the people of Maharashtra.