Why senior party leaders in the city made their presence felt at INDIA meeting
Congress, Sena (UBT) and other MVA leaders at the meeting
While the Congress made a last-ditch failed effort to swap Mumbai North with Sangli with the Thackeray Sena, the chief of Mumbai Congress Varsha Gaikwad and senior party leaders chose to move on and cooperate with the MVA partner that has declared all its candidates in Mumbai. Gaikwad was interested in contesting Mumbai South Central, but Sena (UBT) bagged it in seat-sharing. The Congress hasn’t yet for its share of two — Mumbai North and Mumbai North Central. It is said that senior Congress leaders, including Gaikwad and Bhai Jagtap, could be made candidates here.
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It seems the local Congress leaders, who enjoyed an upper hand in seat-sharing till 2019, have been made to understand (by the high command's recent moves) that their golden days are long gone, and it is the Sena (UBT) that has taken over the reins. Congress’s Lok Sabha candidates will not be able to do much in the two constituencies without UBT’s support. Ticket aspirants and repeaters of the Congress in this year's Assembly elections foresee UBT's role in fixing/tweaking the Mumbai seat-sharing formula. So, no wise leader of a weaker side will attempt to spoil relations with the Sena UBT’s top leadership and its influencers.
Gaikwad, who was at her aggressive best in demanding a fair share for her Mumbai unit, attended a meeting of INDIA bloc on Thursday night. Gaikwad and her party colleagues, Rajya Sabha MP Chandrakant Handore, ex-Mumbai president Bhai Jagtap and ex-MP Husain Dalwai made their presence felt with aggressive criticism of the BJP. Sena's South Central candidate Anil Desai, senior Sena leader Subhash Desai, local AAP, NCP (SP), Samajwadi Party, the CPI and RPI factions, together with Congress, formed a picture of unity and set the tone for the Opposition's campaign that will talk about the accusation that the Centre was planning to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra. Dharavi's redevelopment will also feature in the campaign, and the MVA expects Gaikwad, the local MLA, to drive it hard against Shinde Sena MP and candidate, Rahul Shewale (South Central).
In MVA, while the Congress is battling to decide two candidates, Sena (UBT) has taken a lead in the campaign. The BJP began with a bang last month in Mumbai North and North East to be much ahead of its competition there. In North Central, where the BJP has put the nomination on hold, the Congress is lagging for the same reason. Except for Shewale, no other candidate of Shinde Sena has been declared. With a month to go for voting in Mumbai, the parties have time till May 3 (the last day for the 5th phase nomination) to get us a clear picture of the battlefield.
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