Maharashtra elections: From fighting for 30 seats in Mumbai once, Congress now contesting only from 11; What's behind this deficit?

Congress is facing a significant reduction in its presence in Mumbai for the upcoming assembly elections, contesting only 11 seats compared to 30 in 2019.

This is the party’s smallest seat share in years. After extensive discussions with Shiv Sena (UBT), led by Mumbai Congress President MP Varsha Gaikwad and MLA Aslam Shaikh, the party struggled to secure a better deal under the MVA alliance.

Observers point out that many of the seats they are competing for are strongholds of the BJP, where Congress is unlikely to succeed.


Out of the 11 seats, Congress has sitting MLAs in four and has exchanged Bandra East for Chandivli with Sena (UBT). The party also decided not to contest important areas like Byculla and Versova, which it had initially wanted.

A political observer said, "This is the Congress's lowest seat tally in several decades. Fighting only 11 seats shows that it failed in the art of negotiation with Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP). Even NCP (SP) is contesting three seats, despite having no sitting MLAs and not contesting the Lok Sabha polls in Mumbai."

For the first time, Congress is only contesting one seat—Mulund—in North East Mumbai.

Both NCP (SP)'s Sangita Waze and Congress's Rakesh Shetty have submitted nominations for this seat.

If the Congress candidate withdraws, the party would have no representation in North East Mumbai. Gaikwad expressed her disappointment on this.

"We wanted to secure at least 14-15 seats. We took part in several rounds of negotiations, but in the end, we only got 11 seats since Sena (UBT) announced candidates on their own. We wanted to contest Byculla and Versova, but we will now follow alliance dharma and work to win the maximum number of seats for MVA," said Gaikwad.

(With inputs from TOI)