Why Rahul Gandhi will launch Maharashtra poll campaign today from Vidarbha

After Nagpur, Lok Sabha LoP will travel to Mumbai on Wednesday evening, where Maha Vikas Aghadi is expected to unveil its poll guarantees to counter BJP’s welfare push.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, will kickstart his Maharashtra Assembly poll campaign on Wednesday morning in Nagpur, where he will attend a “Samvidhan Sammelan (Conference on Constitution)”. Later in the day, Gandhi will attend a public meeting in Mumbai where the Maha Vikas Aghadi’s (MVA) poll guarantees are expected to be announced.

The symbolism of choosing Nagpur is crucial as it is not just the headquarters of the RSS, the ideological parent of the BJP, but also the place where Dr B R Ambedkar converted to Buddhism in 1956. Nagpur is in the larger Vidarbha region that is of strategic importance in the battle for Maharashtra. Of the 76 constituencies where the BJP and the Congress are engaged in a direct contest, 36 are in Vidarbha, which is the state’s cotton belt. Of all the regions in the state, the BJP has fielded the most in Vidarbha (47) and dealing it a blow here will go a long way in paving the way for the MVA’s return to power in the state.

Vidarbha used to be a traditional Congress stronghold but the party lost its grip on it as the BJP won 44 of the 62 Assembly constituencies and the party was reduced to 10. Five years ago, the BJP’s tally fell to 29 but the Congress’s seat count rose to only 15. The party’s performance in the Lok Sabha elections, in which it won four of the 10 parliamentary seats in the region, has also given it a reason to hope. The INDIA alliance bagged seven Lok Sabha constituencies, with only three going to the Mahayuti.

One of the major reasons attributed to the Congress and the MVA’s success was its campaign on the issues of Constitution, reservation, and caste census. The Opposition had alleged that the BJP would pose a threat to the Constitution and the quota system if it returned to power with a bigger mandate than in 2019, when it won 303 seats overall. This resonated in Vidarbha, which has a vibrant and powerful Dalit movement and a sizable population of Other Backward Classes (OBCs).