Congress stares at imminent defeat in Maharashtra polls

MUMBAI: The Congress seem to have already thrown in the towel. At places, party candidates stopped canvassing even before the polling date while at others candidates have refused to clear the dues of volunteers fearing an imminent defeat.

In a South Mumbai constituency, angry Congress volunteers were not 'paid' by the sitting MLA. "The MLA already knows that he is going to lose and hence we have not been paid,"grumbled the workers.

The situation was similar in other constituencies as well as Congress workers complained that their candidate was not putting up a fight at all. In Worli, for instance, where sitting NCP MLA and former Minister Sachin Ahir is fighting a tough battle, the Congress candidate was not seen in the last two days of the campaigning.

A Congress workers manning the booth outside the Doordarshan Kendra in Worli said it was inevitable that they would lose, but added the party candidates should still put up a fight. "We know it's a losing battle, but we have to put up a fight or else there would be no Congress presence left,"said the dejected Congress worker.

Individually though many Congress leaders put up a good fight, for instance, Amin Patel from Mumbadevi has been fighting a spirited battle against BJP's Arun Shah. Patel had his work cut out for him as out of the 18 candidates in his constituency, 15 were Muslims, which could eat in to his votes. Patel was seen monitoring the voter turnout in his constituency.

Similarly, in Byculla Madhu Chavan of the Congress was also monitoring the polling booths as well as ensuring voters come out in large numbers.

However, by and large the Congress leaders as well as functionaries felt the ground slipping away. " Our core voters comprised Muslims and north Indians. The Muslim voter turnout has not been as expected, the north Indian voters have come out but they seem to be going for parties like the BJP,"said a Mumbai Congress leader.