Mumbai
In Maharashtra, the Congress is facing a challenging election landscape, having been compelled by its ally Shiv Sena (UBT) to concede a majority of seats in Mumbai. For the upcoming Assembly elections, Congress will contest just 102 seats across the state, slightly more than its MVA partners, but is set for a direct contest with the BJP in 75 of those constituencies. This situation marks a significant decline from 2019 when Congress contested 30 seats in Mumbai alone, as it now struggles with only 11—its lowest seat share in decades.
Despite multiple rounds of negotiations led by Mumbai Congress President MP Varsha Gaikwad and MLA Aslam Shaikh, the party has found itself cornered within the MVA alliance, securing only a modest foothold.
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Observers note that many of the seats Congress is contesting are strongholds for the BJP, leaving little room for optimism regarding potential victories. Of the 11 contested seats, four have sitting Congress MLAs, while one seat—Bandra East—was exchanged for Chandivli with Shiv Sena (UBT). The party also relinquished claims to potentially winnable seats like Byculla and Versova.
The implications of this reduced presence are significant, especially as the NCP contests three seats in Mumbai without any sitting MLAs and the Samajwadi Party has claimed two seats. Congress’s lone representation in North East Mumbai comes from Mulund, a first for the party, where both its candidate, Rakesh Shetty, and NCP (SP)’s Sangita Waze have filed nominations. If Congress withdraws, it risks losing all representation in that crucial area.
On a broader scale, Congress is looking to leverage its strong performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, hoping to sway Assembly voters as it prepares for direct contests with the BJP in 75 of the 288 seats. The BJP, however, has aggressively fielded candidates in traditionally Congress-friendly regions, particularly in Vidarbha, where both parties’ state presidents hail from, emphasizing the importance of this region in the upcoming election.
In the 2019 elections, Congress and BJP competed directly in 66 seats, with BJP winning 50 and Congress only 16. The upcoming election may be pivotal for Congress, especially in Vidarbha, where it won just eight of the 31 seats against BJP’s 23. The stakes are high, particularly in Mumbai, where Congress clashed with BJP in 12 seats and won only one—Malad West, held by Aslam Shaikh.
As Maharashtra approaches the polls on November 20, with results set to be announced on November 23, the Congress party’s ability to navigate these challenges and recalibrate its strategy in the face of shifting political alliances could determine its fate in the evolving landscape of Maharashtra politics.
