MVA calls its winners to Mumbai; Congress denies kraal plan | India News – Times of India

MUMBAI: Maha Vikas Aghadi comprising NCP (SP), Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress has summoned all its winning candidates to Mumbai immediately after the election results were declared on Saturday.
It is not the fear of poaching that drove this decision but the idea that all the alliance’s lawmakers should be under one roof, MVA sources said, adding that their alliance was confident of securing a clear majority.
“Senior MVA officials met on Friday to discuss the political situation and decided to summon all newly elected lawmakers to the city on Saturday itself. We will discuss government formation,” said former minister and UBT Sena politician Anil Parab. The meeting was attended by Parab, UBT Sena MPs Sanjay Raut and Anil Desai, and Congress’ Balasaheb Thorat.
Raut said Mumbai’s Sena (UBT) had made ‘arrangements’ to allow their MLAs to stay away from rural parts of the state. “Old MLAs have some arrangements, but new ones may not,” he said.
Sharad Pawar on Friday claimed that MVA would secure 157 seats, while Uddhav Thackeray put the number at 160. MPCC chairperson Nana Patole was confident of 150 to 155 seats. Congress sources said an internal survey showed that MVA would win 158 seats while Mahayuti would get 113 seats. The survey showed that the BJP would become the largest party with 67 seats.
AICC general secretary Ramesh Chennithala dismissed reports that MVA is looking to shift its legislators to neighboring states. “Our legislators have remained loyal even during the worst crises, so there is no need to drive them out of Maharashtra,” he said.
Parab said specific instructions had been given to all MVA candidates that they should be alert during counting of votes and if any untoward incident took place, it should be immediately brought to the attention of the Returning Officer; If there is no response, the matter should be escalated.
Chennithala said he was confident that the MVA would form the government “with a clear majority” and that there was no dispute over the CM’s post. The decision on the CM would be taken after consulting all senior MVA officials and the AICC chief, he said.
Incidentally, the state has seen two rounds of hotel and resort politics in the last five years: once in 2019 when Shiv Sena left its alliance with the BJP and formed MVA, and then in 2022, when Eknath Shinde revolted against Uddhav’s leadership Thackeray. with 40 MLAs. While in 2019, several NCP MLAs had flown to Surat and then returned to form the MVA government, in 2022, Sena MLAs supporting Shinde first went to Surat, then to Guwahati and then to Goa, from where they returned after Shinde took oath had resigned as CM. .