The Congress leadership isn’t unduly perturbed by the developments in Maharashtra, dismissing “sponsored propaganda” about the Maha Vikas Aghadi being hollowed out and the Opposition unity efforts getting derailed as bogus.

The party’s feedback from Maharashtra is that people had for long expected Ajit Pawar’s exit and it will be difficult for him and other leaders to transfer to the BJP the “secular vote” that was loyal to the NCP. The Congress leaders now expect greater ideological clarity and a forceful pushback from Sharad Pawar, recalling his tactical vacillations that created doubts in the coalition.

A senior leader from Maharashtra told The Telegraph: “Ajit Pawar does have a firm hold on NCP workers and he will impact the prospects of Supriya Sule in the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency. But it won’t be easy for him to persuade the secular voter, who remained loyal to the NCP during the peak of the Narendra Modi wave, to change his heart all of a sudden. He will have to compete with Sharad Pawar for every vote.”

Arguing that loyalty to a leader doesn’t mean the supporters are ideologically neutral, the leader said: “Look at Jagdish Shettar, such a tall leader of the RSS-BJP, who lost the Assembly election in Karnataka after defecting to the Congress. Big leaders defecting to rival parties help in the perception war but Ajit Pawar was always a suspect in the people’s eyes and his exit will be seen as a betrayal. It doesn’t indicate a change in the political climate in favour of the BJP.”

There is an expectation that the secular voter will now move towards the Congress, which is expected to have a larger role in the state after splits in the NCP and the Shiv Sena. The Congress leadership is likely to pick another leader to head the Maharashtra unit, along with appointing a new general secretary in charge of the state. If the incumbent, Nana Patole, is replaced with someone who can take all the factions along, the party can expand dramatically.

As far as national Opposition unity is concerned, Ajit Pawar or Chhagan Bhujbal are not expected to make a difference.

Congress general secretary in charge of the organisation, K.C. Venugopal, tweeted: “After a hugely successful All-Opposition meeting in Patna, we will be holding the next meeting in Bengaluru on 17 and 18 July, 2023. We are steadfast in our unwavering resolve to defeat the fascist and undemocratic forces and present a bold vision to take the country forward.”

Party’s communications chief Jairam Ramesh too responded to doomsayers: “Yesterday when the BJP Washing Machine restarted in Mumbai with its ICE (income tax, CBI, ED) detergent, BJP-inspired obituaries on Opposition unity were being planted.”

Ramesh added: “The obit writers will be disappointed. The next meeting of the parties that met at Patna on June 23 will be held in Bengaluru on July 17 & 18. If anything the Mumbai operations have strengthened Opposition resolve.”

All the key Opposition leaders have telephoned Sharad Pawar to offer their support and are confident of his ability to bounce back. Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, too, had survived the high-profile exits of Mukul Roy and Suvendu Adhikari.

The Congress believes the core issues — unemployment, prices, social discord and Modi’s inability to fulfil promises — do not get obliterated by election-time defections. They believe Modi’s administrative acumen stands seriously challenged by his failures over the last nine years — from demonetisation to Manipur and China — and that people have also seen his real intent — from selling PSUs to Adani to the insidious farm laws.

The party has decided to keep the focus on the real concerns of the people to corner the Modi government. Party president Mallikarjun Kharge, who has been expressing concern about vacancies in government jobs, tweeted about vacancies in the armed forces on Monday. He said: “Modi government has all the time to break political parties but it has no time to fill in important vacancies in the Armed Forces. Those who trumpet nationalism on a daily basis have betrayed our Armed Forces like no other.”

Kharge added: “Currently, there are more than two lakh vacancies in the Armed Forces and Central Armed Police Forces. Agnipath scheme is the explicit admission that the Modi Government does not have funds for our soldiers. Modi Government has betrayed the Defence community on OROP implementation and created a divide among our brave jawans by inducing largescale anomalies in OROP-2. For Modi Government and the BJP, national security is not a national priority. Only betraying the mandate of the people is their priority.”

Ramesh also took up the cause of industrial workers. Tagging a report about the crisis in the diamond industry, he tweeted: “There’s a deep, invisible distress in almost every sector in India today. It’s the small and medium business owners and the workers who are most affected. The common thread in this distress is the absolute apathy of the Modi government. This story highlights the loss of lives and livelihoods of small diamond businesses and workers — most of them migrant workers — in and around the historic city of Surat. There’s no place for them in the so-called ‘Gujarat Model’ peddled by the PM.”