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Maharashtra Congress President Nana Patole on Tuesday said that the "Save Constitution campaign" initiated by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and the party national president Mallikarjun Kharge gave a big victory to the Maha Vikas Aghadi in the state in the recently held Lok Sabha election.
"In the Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra, the effect of the Save Constitution campaign by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge was that the people of Maharashtra gave a big victory to the Maha Vikas Aghadi. A meeting has been held today regarding the victory and the upcoming elections in Maharashtra," Nana Patole told ANI after the meeting of Maharashtra Congress leaders with the party's central leadership here. Former party chief Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal, AICC in-charge for Maharashtra Ramesh Chennithala, State leaders Nana Patole, Vijay Wadettiwar, Prithviraj Chavan, Vishwajeet Kadam, and others were present at the meeting. The meeting was presided over by Kharge at the party's headquarters in New Delhi. In the meeting, Congress leaders discussed the strategy for the upcoming assembly elections in the state due later this year. The tenure of the Maharashtra Assembly ends on November 26 . Having performed well in the Lok Sabha elections, the Maharashtra Congress is now gearing up to strike big in the upcoming state elections and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections. Congress emerged as the single-largest party in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha election, winning 13 seats out of 17 that it had contested. In the 18th Lok Sabha polls, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), which includes the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (SP), secured 30 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Some of the leaders in the Mumbai unit of the Congress want the party to make changes in the leadership structure to ensure victory. Currently, the Mumbai unit of the Congress is helmed by Varsha Gaikwad, who was recently elected to the Lok Sabha from Mumbai North East. With her elevation to the Lok Sabha, the Mumbai Congress has urged the party high command to make changes in the city unit. A senior Mumbai Congress leader said that they have collectively written a letter to the party's high command and have requested them to make necessary amendments to the party structure in view of the upcoming Assembly and BMC elections. The leader emphasised that they have not directly requested the party high command to change the Mumbai party chief, Varsha Gaikwad but they have written in their letter that the present Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC) leadership is not taking leaders in Mumbai in confidence and they are not even being updated about the regular programmes of the MRCC. The leaders said in their letter that this lack of coordination may be very harmful in the upcoming assembly and BMC elections, and to form an MVA government in Maharashtra, a victory in Mumbai is an important precondition. Most of the signatories to the letter are already in Delhi and attended the meeting in the evening at 4 pm. The letter is signed by former MRCC presidents Bhai Jagtap, Janardan Chandurkar, Rajya Sabha MP and CWC member Chandrakant Handore, former minister Naseem Khan, Charan Singh Sapra, and others. Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party core committee held a meeting at Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's residence on June 22. Maharashtra BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule said that in the meeting, the party analysed the entire Lok Sabha elections and the mistakes that were being made by the party in the elections. The Maharashtra Assembly elections are scheduled to be held this year to elect 288 members of the state's legislative assembly. The BJP dipped to nine seats in Maharashtra against 23 in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The vote share stood at 26.18 per cent. The Congress, on the other hand, marginally improved its seat share by securing 13 seats in the state.(ANI)
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