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The Congress has had to climb down also due to an insistence from its allies in Maharashtra – NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray. The allies have warned the Congress to stop and listen.
An angry Rahul Gandhi, an insistent Sonia Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge in agreement, the Haryana loss has made the Congress go back to the drawing board. (Image: PTI File)
An angry Rahul Gandhi, an insistent Sonia Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge in agreement, the Haryana loss has made the Congress go back to the drawing board. No being stubborn, no playing big brother, moving ahead head down, and working to ensure that a Haryana does not happen in Maharashtra is the way forward for the Congress to work with allies.
The Congress has had to climb down several inches in the many strategy meetings of the party not just following the loss in Haryana Assembly polls but also due to an insistence from its allies in Maharashtra – NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray. The allies have warned the Congress to stop and listen.
To begin with, teams of Congress leaders have gone back to those parts of Haryana where the party had the chance to win but lost. The reasons are being deciphered. Beyond this, in Maharashtra, Pawar and Thackeray have made it clear that they would have to be heard if the Maha Vika Aghadi (MVA) has to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming state polls.
Interestingly, Congress MP Sonia Gandhi has played a major role in the Congress climbdown. She accepted the fact that this time she would have to step in as well, which is why she made rare appearances at the CEC meeting to also decide on the seats. She, in agreement with Kharge, made the point that while the Congress has to pay heed to state leaders, the bigger goal was to win the polls.
More interestingly, this has come at the cost of an angry Rahul Gandhi, who felt that the Congress had compromised its interests in key areas of the state and ceded more to Uddhav Thackeray, with Vidharbha being one such area.
Sources say that the Maharashtra election campaign, too, will not be allowed to become Congress centric. While Congress leaders will campaign for their own candidates, the plan is that campaigns will be focusing on the Pawar and Uddhav factor strongly.
One loss changes many things. For now, it has been agreed upon that the Congress will climb down.
