Maharashtra Assembly polls: MVA needs to present united front to bring about change after Maharashtra Assembly election, says Sharad Pawar

The Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on June 30 said his party, the Congress and the Shiv Sena (UBT) led by Uddhav Thackeray will jointly contest the Maharashtra Assembly polls, due in October this year.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi — comprising the Congress, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) — will jointly contest the upcoming Maharashtra election, the NCP(SP) chief said on Sunday, emphasising that the Opposition coalition must present a united front to bring about political change. Seat-sharing talks will begin soon, Mr. Sharad Pawar added.

Speaking in Pune, Mr. Pawar emphasised the “moral obligation” of the major MVA parties to safeguard the interests of their smaller allies who had been part of the Opposition coalition during the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The 83-year-old leader was alluding to the Left parties and the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP), who could not be accommodated in the seat-sharing process at the time of the general election.

Buoyed by the MVA’s remarkable performance in the parliamentary poll, Mr. Pawar said that the alliance had firmly set its sights on winning the Assembly election expected to be held in October this year.

When asked who would be the MVA’s Chief Ministerial face, Mr. Pawar remained noncommittal, reiterating that all three parties together were going before the electorate as “a collective face of the MVA coalition”.

“We [the MVA parties] all have only one goal. Just as Arjuna’s target [in the epic Mahabharata] was an eye [of a bird], our eyes are firmly set on winning the Assembly election. The Congress, NCP (SP) and Uddhav Thackeray’s Sena (UBT) will jointly contest the election,” he said, adding, “Although seat-sharing discussions have not yet begun, they will start soon.”

Mr. Pawar, a former Union Minister and four-time Chief Minister of the State, said that the MVA had received tremendous encouragement in the Lok Sabha poll result from Maharashtra, where the Opposition won 30 of the 48 seats, with an independent later pledging his alliance to the MVA as well. While the three parties have already begun preparations to some extent for the Assembly poll, they will have to make the maximum use of the next three months to be poll-ready, he added.

After trouncing his nephew, Deputy CM and rebel NCP leader Ajit Pawar in the Lok Sabha contest, Pawar senior is now preparing to lay siege to Ajit’s stronghold of Pimpri-Chinchwad in Pune.