Compared to BJP, Congress falls short in seat-sharing bargain

NAGPUR: As the final nominations are in, it has become clear that Congress has failed to secure enough seats on the MVA bargaining table. Congress managed to eke out around 100 seats in the MVA alliance. In comparison, BJP walked away with around 150 in the seat-sharing haggling match within the Mahayuti.

While it's clear that Congress is way off the mark, opinion is divided as to who is responsible for it. Last week, reports surfaced that Congress' Rahul Gandhi had chided state-level functionaries for a poor seat-sharing deal, though these reports were denied by the party.

A Vidarbha-based Congress neta said the bargaining game was lost by his party because of two reasons. "First, the internal differences within our state leaders. Second reason was that unlike the Mahayuti, our two regional allies are extremely hard bargainers with a hotline to our high command," he added.

"Both NCP (SP) & Sena (UBT) have direct access to Congress high command. Sharad Pawar, for obvious reasons, was able to speak anytime with our decision-makers whenever bargaining became too hot," the neta said.

"At the same time, Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut can apparently dial in Rahul Gandhi at any point, thus making local functionaries redundant in case of a deadlock," said the neta. He added that in Mahayuti, neither Ajit Pawar nor Eknath Shinde can directly call PM Modi or Amit Shah, and that went in favour of BJP's state unit during bargaining sessions.

Another Nagpur-based leader, who is also an ex-minister, said Congress netas from western Maharashtra scuttled some hard bargaining by state president Nana Patole and LoP Vijay Wadettiwar. "Patole has an alpha-male type personality, and that is reflected in the bargaining talks for seats. He was driving a hard bargain for seats. While he may not always be right, ultimately it was important for the party to stick together," he added.