MVA allies cannot individually defeat BJP alliance, will fight together: Ajit Pawar

Pune: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar said on Monday that the alliance involving his party will work together to take on the BJP’s alliance in Maharashtra.

The alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), propped up by the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), Congress and the NCP, is basking in the Congress’ victory in Karnataka.

Pawar appeared to be motivated by the subsequent regime change when he said that MVA would fight the Maharashtra assembly and Lok Sabha polls together to defeat the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance.

Pawar told reporters that the leaders of the MVA alliance have decided to contest both the polls united, and would pick candidates on merit beyond party interests.

‘In any condition, MVA leaders shall sit together and decide the candidate on elective merit without thinking of their own party. We shall discuss and decide on how to increase the MLA and MP of MVA then it will be the right thing, every party is working for it,’ he was quoted NDTV as saying.

Pawar rammed home the importance of strengthening the alliance because parties in MVA cannot win polls individually.

In order to defeat the alliance of Shivsena of Eknath Shinde and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), MVA allies have to come together, according to Pawar.

‘We all should accept the fact that victory is not possible by contesting alone, therefore if we want to defeat the current Shivsena of Eknath Shinde and BJP alliance then we have to be together and contest together without any difference then we would definitely win the elections,’ Pawar was quoted by NDTV as saying.

Both national and state polls will take place probably together in Maharashtra in 2024.