Congress’ monsoon ammo to pin Mahayuti: Crumbling law & order, hit-&-run, agri crisis

Nagpur: Buoyed by the electoral success in Maharashtra, the state Congress unit is fired up for the upcoming monsoon session of the state legislature, where it is hoping to corner the BJP-led Mahayuti.
Emerging as the party with maximum MPs in Maharashtra (13), Congress leaders want to take the momentum forward and capitalize on the leader of the opposition’s (LoP) post held by Chimur MLA Vijay Wadettiwar.After the monsoon session, the state will head to polls within two months.
LoP Wadettiwar said, “As this will be the last assembly session before elections, all eyes are on it. The Mahayuti govt failed our farmers, our unemployed youths and women (security). Farmers are getting the same price for soya as they got a decade ago, so there is widespread anger. During the assembly session, the govt will have to give all replies.”
He added, “The law and order situation has deteriorated in Maharashtra. Hit-and-run cases in Nagpur and Pune, an MLA firing inside a police station are some horrific examples.”
Hitting out at the govt, Wadettiwar said, “The state govt is so corrupt they are busy with their commissions from tenders and not worried about the common man. After the model code of conduct came into effect, the Mahayuti govt took special permission from Election Commission of India (ECI) and cleared projects worth Rs 25,000 crore. All three parties in the alliance are sharing the spoils of graft, but have no money for poor farmers.”
Sources in Congress said the ‘unexpected’ results in the 2024 LS polls has come as a shot in the arm for the party through which they may try to cement their place as a ‘big brother’ in MVA and press for maximum seats in the assembly polls.
A Congress leader from Vidarbha said, “In 2019, we had one MP from Maharashtra, this time around, the figure stands at 13. If you look at the arithmetic, the results impact almost 80 assembly constituencies. We will expose the failure of BJP and its allies in the state during the assembly session.”
Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Nana Patole has always advocated for Congress to go it alone in polls, and time and again got embroiled in a war of words with MVA allies NCP (Sharad) and Shiv Sena (UBT).
While Patole did not respond to TOI’s calls, those close to him say the state Congress chief will not rock the boat at this juncture. Another Nagpur-based Congress leader said, “Things within the MVA are going great with Congress again going back to its strength. I don’t think anyone wants to go solo now. In fact, with even BJP needing many allies to stay afloat, we have to accept the fact that the era of coalition politics is here to stay.”