Congress to lead opposition in Maharashtra, will fight 2024 polls as part of MVA: Ex-CM Prithviraj Chavan

He also expressed confidence that there will be no split in the Congress as had been witnessed with the Shiv Sena and the NCP.

Former Maharashtra chief minister and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan on Thursday said his party will lead the opposition in Maharashtra following the recent split in the NCP and would contest the Lok Sabha polls next year as part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition.

In an interview with PTI, he also expressed confidence that there will be no split in the Congress as had been witnessed with the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Chavan said that at the national level, the opposition alliance was taking shape on the lines of the principle adopted by the then opposition under J P Narayan to defeat Indira Gandhi in 1977.

Read | 'Development imbalance, inflation, agrarian distress highlights of 9 years of Modi rule,' says Prithviraj Chavan

"He (Narayan) defeated us (Congress) but the principle remains. He forged a broad-based alliance of opposition parties who were opposed to Indira Gandhi. They did not fight about who will lead the alliance. Mr J P Narain led the alliance but he was not the PM candidate," Chavan said.

The opposition alliance that is being shaped up now is going in that direction, he said.

"If we adopt this strategy and set aside the issue of the prime ministerial face considering that our first objective is to defeat the BJP, saving democracy and Constitution, we can do this," the Congress leader said.

Chavan said that it is "our endeavour that the opposition fields a joint candidate against the BJP and the fight throughout the country is one-against-one in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls".

Talking about the fast-paced developments in Maharashtra politics and whether the Congress would take the lead of the Maha Vikas Aghadi, Chavan said there have been two major splits in two major components of the MVA -- the Shiv Sena and the NCP -- and after that, the Congress has emerged as the largest constituent of the coalition.

"The Congress will naturally take the lead, it will become the principal opposition party, a Congress person will probably become the leader of the opposition. The numbers have shrunk from the time we were in the government because there have been two splits, but whatever the numbers, our parties are large, a large number of people support us on the ground," he said.

"The Congress will lead the opposition and we will be an effective opposition (in Maharashtra)," he stressed.

His remarks come days after NCP chief Sharad Pawar faced a revolt by his nephew Ajit Pawar who along with eight other leaders joined the Eknath Shinde-led government.

In a surprising move, Ajit Pawar took oath as the deputy chief minister, while eight legislators of his Nationalist Congress Party took oath as ministers in the government led by the Shiv Sena (Shinde) and the BJP.

The Congress is part of the MVA alliance consisting of itself, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) and the NCP.

Chavan, who was the chief minister of Maharashtra between November 2010 and September 2014, said there are no two ways about it that after this split in the NCP, the Congress has emerged as the largest party in the MVA.

"There will be no split in the Congress. The Congress will have to lead opposition unity in Maharashtra. With the meeting in Delhi, it has become absolutely clear that we will fight the Lok Sabha elections as MVA, the seat sharing will be done later," he said.

"We had started an exercise (for seat sharing) but due to the split in the NCP, a new beginning has to be made," he said.

Senior Congress leaders from Maharashtra had met the party top brass this Tuesday and discussed the political situation in the wake of the split in the NCP.

Asked whether the MVA will continue till 2024, Chavan said, "There is no reason to ask this question. We have said a number times that the MVA was constituted for a particular purpose and that purpose was to defeat the communal forces led by BJP and to stop the march towards dictatorship that the Modi government is leading the country to."

"These objectives remain, whoever comes with us, we will fight (together), there are four-five small parties, we appeal to them to join us. There will be a seat sharing formula worked out over a period of time," he said.

"I will be the first one to admit that our strength has shrunk because of the split in the Shiv Sena first and then in the NCP. But the NCP split, the picture is not very clear as to whether Mr Ajit Pawar indeed has two-third majority, because if he does not have that then under the 10th schedule of the Constitution, his nine MLAs that have taken oath as ministers stand disqualified," he said.

Talking about the recent NCP split, Chavan said many people have not decided on which side they are and are going back to their constituencies to find out that people are not liking this "treachery". They are going back to Sharad Pawar, he claimed.

On whether the Congress would gain bargaining power due to the developments in Maharashtra, Chavan said he would not talk about the current situation in terms of bargaining power.

"Where is the question of bargaining. We will discuss seat sharing formula and field best candidates to take on the BJP. We will try to field one opposition candidate against one NDA (National Democratic Alliance) candidate. If we are able to do that, the electoral arithmetic is very simple," he said.

He argued that in 2019, the BJP managed 37 per cent vote share which means that about 65 per cent voted against the BJP to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"But this 65 per cent is divided in such a way that there are 38 parties representing them in Lok Sabha. This division of votes helps PM Modi," he said and called on the opposition to unite and not allow a division of votes in the 2024 general elections.