'Cong will be single-largest party in state assembly polls'

Maharashtra Congress Vice President Mohan Joshi, in anexclusive interview with The Free Press Journal, asserted that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) an alliance consisting of the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) - will secure a resounding victory in the upcoming Assembly elections in the state. Joshi, a former member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC), will not be running for office himself.

- Gaurav Kadam

However, he has pledged to campaign for the MVA candidates, especially in Pune. He also highlighted that several politicians are eager to secure a ticket from the Congress party after its impressive performance in the recently held Lok Sabha polls, where the party secured 13 seats in the state, 12 more than it won in 2019.

Q. How many seats will Congress contest in Pune?

A. There are six Assembly segments within the Pune Lok Sabha constituency, and if we consider the limits of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), there are a total of eight Assembly seats. Wehave assessed the political situation in all of these eight seats and are confident that we can win all of them. Therefore, I can confidently say that Pune will play an important role in the MVA coming to power in the state.In 2019, Congress contested three seats Kasba Peth, Shivajinagar, and Pune Cantonment. However, this time around, our strength has increased, and we are demanding more seats. But it's important to note that whichever party within the MVA gets to contest, the other parties in the alliance will campaign for that particular party and its candidate.

Q. Lok Poll survey shows MVA crossing the magic number of 144. How do you look at it?