As part of its preparations for the upcoming assembly polls scheduled later this year, Maharashtra Congress today decided to depute co-ordinators for all 288 constituencies to study the political situation and finalise its strategy for the elections.
The announcement was made by Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief Manikrao Thakre at a meeting of District Congress Committee (DCC) presidents and office-bearers. The meeting was convened to plan the preparations for the assembly elections, in which Congress and its ally NCP will fight for the fourth term in office.
Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, who was also present at the day-long meeting, told reporters later that the decision did not mean that the party had plans to contest all 288 seats on its own.
"This is part of our organisational strengthening, which will help us to choose good candidates for the constituencies, which we will contest," Chavan said.
In 2009, Congress had contested 166 seats, leaving 122 for NCP, out of the total 288 seats.
Sources said some DCC chiefs, like the one from Parbhani, complained that NCP leaders do not give respect to Congress workers and leaders in the district.
NCP had accused MLA Ramprasad Bordikar of working against its candidate Vijay Bhamble in Parbhani and the Congress had issued a show-cause notice to Bordikar.
Sources said Thakre told the DCC chiefs to ensure that the atmosphere was not vitiated while their airing of views about NCP at the district level.
Some office-bearers complained that due to late declaration of candidates at many places in the Lok Sabha polls, there were shortcomings in the campaign and asked the state leadership to avoid the mistake in the assembly polls.
