Mumbai: So shaken is the Congress in its crushing defeat in the Assembly elections that the party has not yet nominated anybody to lead the group of MLAs in the House when the special session of the state legislature begins on Saturday.
Though the party had a meeting of its newly elected MLAs recently in Mumbai, it failed to choose one among them. Instead, the meeting decided to authorise All India Congress Committee (AICC) chief Mallikarjun Kharge to do the honour.
The Congress could win just 16 seats of 101, with a vote share of 12.42%, contested under the banner of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) with Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar-led NCP.
The leader is to be chosen among just 16 MLAs and many prominent leaders such as Prithviraj Chavan, and Balasaheb Thorat have suffered ignominious defeats in their traditional bastions such as Karad (South) and Sangamner. It is surprising that the meeting decided to authorise Kharge to pick up one, say the party insiders.
The party had 222 MLAs at one time (the highest by any party with 56.36% vote share) in 1972. Now it is left with the smallest number since 1960, a leader said, adding the party tally was 141 in 1990, and since then it’s on the decline. The party had 42 MLAs in the last assembly (2014-2019) with an 18.10% vote share.
When asked about the no decision on the group leader, a leader said there has been a strong opinion about Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief Nana Patole. He has been actively raising concerns about the alleged tampering of EVMs, and the decision on the matter remains in a wait-and-watch mode.
It’s not just with Maharashtra but the Congress has not chosen anybody to lead the Haryana Congress legislature party when the elections took place in October, say the party leaders. There, the party leader will be the leader of the opposition, but the AICC has not nominated anybody, they say. In Maharashtra, to stake a claim on the post of the leader of the opposition a party needs 29 MLAs – 10% of the total strength of the house which is 288.
