Maharashtra Election Result Analysis: The Congress Party has given its worst performance so far in the Maharashtra Assembly elections. From political pundits to Congress leaders and workers, they are not able to understand how to react to this bad defeat. That too when the party had emerged as the largest party in the state in the Lok Sabha elections held a few months ago. A section within the party blames the state party president Nana Patole himself for the plight of the Congress. He says that Patole is a leader planted by BJP, in whose trap the Congress high command got trapped.
Actually, this whole thing is happening about State Congress President Nana Patole. Nana Patole is the state president of Maharashtra Congress since 2021. His identity is that of a militant leader. But, let us tell you that this is the same Nana Patole who contested the Lok Sabha elections on BJP ticket in 2014 and reached Parliament. He defeated veteran NCP leader Praful Patel from Bhandara Gondia. Then in 2017, he left his MP allegedly for talking about farmers. A few months later, in January 2018, he joined Congress.
Came into politics from Congress
However, he was a Congressman in the early days of his political career. He became MLA for the first time in 1999 on Congress ticket. Then became MLA in 2004. But, in 2008 he left Congress and joined BJP. He remained in BJP for about 10 years from 2008 to 2018. Then returned to Congress. After the formation of Mahavikas Aghadi government in the state in 2019, he was made the speaker of the assembly. But, a few months before Uddhav Thackeray’s government came into trouble, he left the post of Speaker. Nana Patole is accused of exercising his bullying influence within the party. He does aggressive politics. In such a situation, within three years of joining Congress, he was made the State Congress President and he had direct access to Rahul Gandhi.
With the rise of Nana Patole, many senior leaders of the state Congress started feeling isolated. This was the reason why many big Congress leaders – former CM Ashok Chavan, Milind Deora, Sanjay Nirupam and Baba Siddiqui left the party before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
bad condition of congress
The Congress, which ruled Maharashtra politics till the 1990s, is currently going through its worst phase. It has been reduced to only 16 seats. In the assembly elections held in 1978 after the Emergency of 1975, Congress had got 62 seats in the state. Nana Patole himself has won from Sakoli assembly seat by about 200 votes. Apart from these, senior leader of State Congress Balasaheb Tharot has lost from Sangamner seat. He was winning this seat continuously since 1985. Similarly, former CM Prithvirao Chavan has lost from Karad South seat.
reason for defeat
According to a report in Hindustan Times, Congress leaders themselves are saying that we were defeated because of our campaign strategy. There were many important issues in the state like corruption, crime, collapse of the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, but the party was insisting on saving the Constitution. On the other hand, Mahayuti was talking about depositing money in women’s accounts. Not only this, the party was overconfident after the Lok Sabha elections and instead of working on the ground, it was worrying about seat distribution within the alliance.
Tags: BJP, Congress, Nana Patole
FIRST PUBLISHED: November 25, 2024, 10:39 IST
