From guarantees to strict party diktat: How Congress is gearing up for battleground Maharashtra

Rahul Gandhi

After the poll debacle in Haryana, the Congress is bracing up to put its house in order and present a united face in Maharashtra where it seeks to win in alliance with its other INDIA bloc partners.

According to reports, factional fighting was cited as one of the main reasons for its drubbing in Haryana. The party leadership does not want to take chances and has issued a stern warning to all its state leaders not to speak anything in public either against their party colleagues or any of the allies, said a report by news agency PTI.

The message of stern action in case of any violation has come from none other than Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi, who are learnt to have told all its leaders in Maharashtra to refrain from making any such public statements, during an internal meeting.

The party on appointed division-wise AICC senior observers for the Maharashtra Assembly polls with Ashok Gehlot and G Parameshwara to look after the Mumbai and Konkan region and Sachin Pilot and Uttam Kumar Reddy to oversee the Marathwada region. Bhupesh Baghel, Charanjit Singh Channi and Umang Singhar will look after the Vidarbha region (Amravati and Nagpur).

TS Singhdeo and M B Patil will take care of western Maharashtra. Syed Naseer Hussain and D Anasuya Seethakka have been appointed senior observers for North Maharashtra, the party said.

Additionally, the party is considering adopting its "five guarantees" strategy from Karnataka for the upcoming elections in Maharashtra. They are planning to introduce an additional promise of a caste census aimed at addressing various quota issues in the state without altering any community's existing share, reported The Times of India quoting sources.

The proposed populist measures include monthly cash payments to women who head households, free bus travel for women, 10 kg of free food grains for families, free electricity up to 200 units, and unemployment allowances.

The grand old party first used this "guarantee-based approach" in the 2022 Himachal Pradesh elections, resulting in their first victory since December 2018. They then implemented "five guarantees" in Karnataka's elections in May 2023, where they secured a significant win against the BJP. A similar promise strategy was proposed for Telangana in December 2023.