Maharashtra polls: Pilot says MVA will decide on CM's name within a day

Confident of an MVA win in Maharashtra, Congress general secretary Sachin Pilot on Friday said there would not be any issue among alliance constituents in deciding on the CM post after getting a majority and it would not take more than a day to "figure out who will get what position".

Pilot, who was given the charge by the party in the Marathwada region and campaigned extensively in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and in constituencies where bypolls are taking place, dismissed indications by exit polls that the BJP alliance in the two states would get a majority.

In an interview with PTI a day before the results, Pilot said the results of the assembly elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand as well as to the bypolls in various states will provide a "reality check" to the BJP and the NDA.

On the party's prospects in the recent round of assembly polls after the Haryana defeat, the Congress general secretary said Haryana was a setback and a very surprising one but Maharashtra and Jharkhand were a "separate story".

"There is a visible desire among voters to have a change in Maharashtra because this double engine government that was running was not living up to any of the expectations that the voters had," he said.

"The kind of campaign we ran, the kind of guarantees we promised, our coalition partners, candidate selection, our narrative was positive and was well received. So I think we are going to see a change of government in Maharashtra," Pilot, who held a total of 55 public meetings during the assembly polls campaign, including more than two dozen in Maharashtra alone, said.

In Jharkhand, a sitting CM was put behind bars on some grounds and ultimately got relief from the Supreme Court. This kind of misuse of central agencies has not gone down well with the electorate of the state, he said.

"The BJP doesn't have a credible face in Jharkhand. I think in both the states, the INDIA bloc partners are in a good position to form governments," Pilot told PTI.

Talking about the impact of polls on the central government in case the INDIA bloc wins in the two states, he said, "It is not our job to make the government stable and unstable, it is the contradictions within their alliance that will end up doing that."  "On many issues on, the allies of the NDA are not in agreement. We have seen many bills in Parliament that have been withdrawn, there is lack of consensus, lack of discussion that the ruling alliance has been used to in the last 10 years," Pilot said.

The results in the Lok Sabha in Maharashtra saw an overwhelming defeat of the BJP and it was reflective of the mood in Maharashtra and it is bound to continue, he said.

Asked whether the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) constituents -- the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SCP) -- would be able to decide on a CM face amicably in case they get a majority, he said, "Running for the chair is what the BJP and its allies are doing. All of us had decided that let us first get a majority and within a day we will decide who will get what position."  It is really not that important for any of the MVA alliance partners to stake claims and none has done that, he said.

"We have been very mature about this because people's interests are far more important than individual interests. But what is more surprising is that the sitting CM has not been projected...because Mr. Ajit Pawar (NCP) and Mr. Devendra Fadnavis (BJP) both are uncomfortable with the current CM and that was openly on display during the campaign," he claimed.

"Everyone is seasoned in the MVA. Mr (Sharad) Pawar is a multiple time CM, Mr. (Uddhav) Thackeray too has been CM before and the Congress had a historically strong presence in Maharashtra. So three very mature parties were fighting together, who gets what position is not going to be an issue at all, it will be resolved earliest once we get a majority," Pilot said.

"It will not take more than a day once we get a majority to figure out who will get what position," he added.

On talk of churn in Mahayuti with Ajit Pawar expressing disapproval of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's 'katenge toh batenge' slogan, Pilot said he doesn't know what the Mahayuti alliance would do but asserted that the MVA is committed to people of Maharashtra and has come together with five guarantees, a joint agenda for Maharashtra and will stick to it.

"I think people have liked what we projected, they have faith in the delivery capacities of the MVA and he doesn't see any issue at all once votes are counted," he said.

Slamming Adityanath's statement, Pilot said no right thinking person will approve the comment that he has made.

"I countered the slogan saying 'padhoge toh badhoge'. That is what we have to tell the young generation. 'Ye baantne kaatne ki baat inko election mein yaad aati hai' (they remember this divisive rhetoric during elections)," Pilot said.

"Rahul Gandhi ji has given a very befitting reply to Modi ji's 'ek hain, toh safe hain', he has elaborated who is ek, and who is safe. Business interest and political interest combining to getting rid of India's assets, that is Mr Modi's statement," he said.

Dismissing the exit polls predicting win for the BJP alliance in Jharkhand and Maharashtra, Pilot said, "Less I say about them (exit polls), the better it is. We will wait for the day results come out."  "I am giving feedback from the ground. So in Maharashtra for example, the soya bean farmers, the cotton farmers and onion farmers are in severe distress and the (state) government and the government of India has only empty promises to give," he said.

The farming community in Marathwada and the Vidarbha region is very uncomfortable with their regime in Delhi and Mumbai, Pilot said.

While polling for the Jharkhand Assembly took place on November 13 and 20, voting in Maharashtra took place in a single phase on November 20.

The counting of votes would take place on November 23.