Senior Congress leader and Maharashtra assembly poll candidate Balasaheb Thorat has asserted that the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi will win a clear majority and also indicated his chief ministerial aspirations.
In an exclusive interview to PTI ahead of the November 20 state assembly polls, Thorat (71) said he is among the few senior leaders in the MVA after Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar head Sharad Pawar and enjoys cordial relations with leaders of the alliance.
Thorat's assertion has come at a time when the ruling Mahayuti coalition has been reluctant to declare incumbent Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as the next CM, with Bharatiya Janata Party leader Devendra Fadnavis saying a decision on it will be taken after the poll results are announced.
"I am among the senior leaders in the MVA after Sharad Pawar," Thorat, an eight-term MLA from Sangamner in Ahilyanagar district, told PTI when asked whether he saw himself as an acceptable face of the Opposition alliance.
"But, I hail from central Maharashtra," Thorat quipped to a query on if he would like to see the next chief minister from western Maharashtra.
Ahilyanagar district is located on the cusp of western and north Maharashtra.
Thorat, who held several prominent ministerial positions in the previous Maharashtra governments since 1999, is taking on Amol Khatal of the Shiv Sena in Sangamner.
The Congress high command had despatched Thorat for seat-sharing talks with allies Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray and Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar after Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole ruffled feathers of the alliance partners.
Thorat is the leader of the Congress Legislature Party in Maharashtra and also former president of the state party unit.
"I see good prospects for the MVA. We are set to get a majority and are now working to better our numbers," said Thorat, who is also a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee.
He also ruled out any political re-alignment after the Maharashtra assembly election results, as seen in 2019 when the (then undivided) Shiv Sena dumped long-term ally Bharatiya Janata Party and joined hands with the NCP and Congress to make Uddhav Thackeray the chief minister.
Asked whether Congress saw itself as the elder brother of the MVA alliance, Thorat said there was no such thing and the coalition partners will sit together and decide on the government formation.
"Our first and foremost agenda is to get rid of the Mahayuti government that is neck deep in corruption," he claimed.
Thackeray was unseated as chief minister in 2022 after Eknath Shinde claimed support of several Shiv Sena MLAs and joined hands with the BJP.
The NCP also saw Ajit Pawar claiming the support of more than two-thirds of its MLAs when he joined the Shinde-led government last year, which led to a split in the party founded by Sharad Pawar.
"The Eknath Shinde-led government was formed on the foundation of corruption. Even anti-defection laws were circumvented to break two parties," Thorat charged while targeting the Mahayuti government of the Shiv Sena, BJP and Ajit Pawar's NCP.
On one hand, the state government had rolled out schemes like Ladki Bahin (for financial assistance to women) and on the other, BJP leaders such as Pasha Patel and Dhananjay Mahadik were seen allegedly making fun of women through objectionable remarks and gestures, he said.
"Their disinterest about the welfare of women is out in the open for everyone to see. The videos of Patel and Mahadik have reached every household," he said.
Thorat claimed the BJP's campaign acquired communal overtones as the ruling alliance has realised that welfare schemes rolled out after setbacks in the Lok Sabha elections were not gaining the desired traction.
"It appears that the BJP's top leadership wants to trigger riots in the state. It is unfortunate to see the top leadership of the country, whose primary responsibility is to ensure religious harmony, resort to such politics of polarisation," he charged.
