Maharashtra Assembly polls: Gehlot, Baghel among Congress' poll observers

Maharashtra elections: The Congress has named former Union Minister Mukul Wasnik and AICC General Secretary Avinash Pande as state election senior coordinators

The Congress on Tuesday named five senior leaders as its poll observers for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections, scheduled for November 20, as announced by the Election Commission (EC) earlier today. The list features former Congress Chief Ministers, including Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel. 

Other members are Karnataka Ministers MB Patil and G Parameshwara; former Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi; former Madhya Pradesh Minister Umang Singhar among others. Sachin Pilot, T S Singhdeo, and Syed Naseer Hussain have also been named.

Besides district-focused observers, the Congress has also appointed state election senior coordinators, naming former Union Minister Mukul Wasnik and Avinash Pande. Pande is the General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).

Poll observers are appointed by political parties to observe the conduct of the election.

The term of the current Maharashtra Assembly ends on November 26.

The Congress will be hoping to make a comeback in the state, two years after its coalition government, formed with Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar’s National Congress Party (NCP), was toppled in June 2022. Incumbent CM Eknath Shinde had led a rebellion against Thackeray that had resulted in a fracture in the party.

Shinde went on to form the government with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),  appointing Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy. Their coalition was later joined by Ajit Pawar, who led a rebellion against NCP, causing a split in the party in July 2023. Ajit Pawar was also appointed a deputy under Shinde, alongside Fadnavis.

Uddhav Thackeray is the son of Balasaheb Thackeray the founder of Shiv Sena who passed away in 2012.

Since his ouster, Uddhav has been mounting an attack on Shinde for betraying the party and is hoping to “teach” him a lesson through his potential comeback.

However, both sides are yet to announce their chief ministerial face for the polls.