The Congress party seems to be now getting in an overdrive mode, with elections in Mumbai just two weeks away the party’s central leadership, for the first time ever, has set up a 13-member coordination committee to handle the party’s electoral campaign in the city. On Tuesday, the panel had its first meeting to chalk out a campaign plan, which will include a mega rally by party president Sonia Gandhi.There’s a reason why Mumbai and its metropolitan region, which will vote for 10 members of Parliament (MPs), matter so much for the Congress.In 2004, of the 13 seats the party won in the state, five were from the Mumbai-Thane belt; it lost only one to the Shiv Sena . In the 2009 polls, of the 17 seats won in the state, the Congress won five seats in Mumbai.

 

One- third of i t s seats in Maharashtra have come from the Mumbai-Thane belt in the last two elections, which means a positive verdict in Mumbai could help tilt the tally in favour of the Congress.To avoid a complete rout in the state, the party leadership believes that efforts must be made to minimise losses in the city.Amidst dismal poll forecasts, if there’s any good news for the Congress, it is the rivalry between the Thackeray cousins. Congress leaders are hoping that 2014 will see a repeat of what happened in the 2009 elections, when Maharashtra NavnirmanSena’s (MNS) contestants polled more than one lakh votes in each of the six Mumbai city seats, eating into the Sena’svotebank and turning the tide in favour of the ruling alliance.