Congress awaits BJP-Sena deal before declaring 1st list of candidates

MUMBAI: Maharashtra Congress did not release its first list on Monday despite its state chief Balasaheb Thorat saying that it would come up with the names on September 20, prolonging the wait for aspiring candidates.

Maharashtra will go to polls on October 21 and the counting will be held on October 24. Congress leaders have now said that the party will release its list on October 28.

Some Congress leaders have attributed the delay to the ongoing tussle between BJP and Shiv Sena over seat sharing. They claimed that the first list of 49 candidates has been readied by Maharashtra-in-charge Mallikarjun Kharge and given to AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik, which has not been released.


“One of the reasons could be that some of the 49 selected candidates may be dropped depending on how the talks between BJP and Sena shape up. We believe that if there is a tie-up between the two parties (BJP and Sena), then some of the candidates who are unsure of getting tickets would join our party,” said a Congress leader on the condition of anonymity, adding, “Hence we are waiting to see how things pan out.”

He said there’s also a feeling that the announcement of candidates should be done only after September 28 when the ‘Pitru Paksha’ gets over. No auspicious work is undertaken by the Hindus during this period.

Political parties tweaking their strategy after studying their rivals is nothing new: in the 2014 assembly polls, for instance, barely minutes after the BJP and Sena announced that they were not having an alliance, the NCP also said that they would not have any truck with the Congress.