Analysis: What ails the Maharashtra Congress?

Problems within the Maharashtra Congress unit have been lingering since the formation of the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi government comprising the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress in late 2019

With the Congress beset with leadership problems at the central level, the malaise is afflicting the party’s organisation in Maharashtra. Long-festering problems within the Maharashtra Congress unit came into sharp relief earlier this month after 22 (of the 44 Congress MLAs in Maharashtra) openly voiced their dissatisfaction with their leaders in the State and later met with party chief Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi to voice their grievances in person. 

According to senior party leaders and analysts, these issues have been lingering since the formation of the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi government comprising the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress in late 2019, with coordination issues between the party brass and its rank-and-file bedevilling the Maharashtra Congress unit. 

This is overlaid with the conflicting interests of Sharad Pawar’s NCP and the ideologically opposed Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray, with several Congress legislators particularly upset with the NCP’s ‘dominance’ and a lack of strong Congress leadership to counter the expansionist aspirations of Mr. Pawar’s party. 

The Maharashtra Congress woes have become particularly pronounced after the BJP’s ascendancy post-2014 which coincided with the tenures of senior Congressmen Ashok Chavan, Balasaheb Thorat and now Nana Patole as Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief.    

The passing of former Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh in 2012 has left the party bereft of a commanding mass-based leader in Maharashtra, which has been compounded the demise of experienced ‘trouble-shooters’ at the central level such as Ahmed Patel and Oscar Fernandes who took a keen interest in resolving the party’s organisational woes in the State.

Most of the dissenting Maharashtra Congress MLAs are reportedly miffed with Mr. Thorat, who was elected the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader by Ms. Gandhi in 2019, for failing to ensure that Congress MLAs received adequate fund allocation that would help in building the party’s base in the future in key constituencies.   

“The perception is that Mr. Thorat has not been able to negotiate firmly with our allies, the Shiv Sena and particularly the NCP, to ensure the Congress gets its due. He is not someone who is viewed as being firm or particularly aggressive,” said a Congress legislator requesting anonymity.