2 days Ago By Anurag Bende
Pune: "Pack your bags and be ready". Senior Congress members have sent out this message to their probable winning candidates, instructing them to move to a resort near Bengaluru in Karnataka to avoid horse trading after the results are out on Saturday. According to a senior Congress functionary, the national members of the party have entrusted Karnataka deputy chief minister D K Shivakumar with the responsibility to assist Maharashtra Congress in keeping its members together.
"Expecting a tight result on Saturday, the party is planning to take all its winning MLAs to a resort near Bengaluru to avoid giving any opportunity to Mahayuti to approach any of these legislators to switch sides," a senior functionary of the state Congress said. Most of the exit polls have given Mahayuti an edge,but members of both major alliances are still not showing much confidence in projecting the final figure. Both are expecting to get close to the 160-mark, and in the case of a tighter contest, MVA fears Mahayuti approaching some of their MLAs with some "lucrative offers" to switch sides.
Therefore, as a precautionary measure, MVA will be looking to shift all its winning MLAs to various resorts. Congress is looking at neighbouring Karnataka as a "safe" place for its MLAs to stay until the formation of the govt because of the party's govt there. "Since Karnataka deputy chief minister Shivakumar played a key role in keeping the Congress MLAs together during the Karnataka elections, the party has approached him for ‘resort management' to help Maharashtra Congress.
The party is planning to take all the winners to Bengaluru, for which the Maharashtra Congress is in touch with its counterparts in Karnataka," a senior Congress member said. Learning from their earlier split, NCP (SCP) and Shiv Sena (UBT) have also started establishing contacts with their respective candidates. Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Friday held virtual dialogues with the party's functionaries, instructing them on the precautions they need to take on the counting day.
Even NCP (SCP) chief Sharad Pawar held a discussion with the party's senior members and told them to chalk out a post-result strategy. "All the winning candidates have been told to collect their winning certificates and head to Mumbai immediately. All the MLAs will be kept together until the formation of the govt," said a senior NCP (SCP) member.
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