Congress-NCP talks to progress only after nod from top leaders

Earlier, state Congress leaders who had gathered for a meeting at the state headquarters in Mumbai had stressed the need for like-minded parties to fight against autocratic rule of government.

Ashok Chavan (File photo)

MUMBAI: The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leadership in the state that huddled together here on Tuesday said that while they have principally agreed to the idea of forging an alliance for the 2019 elections, the talks would proceed only after a nod from the top leadership of both the parties.

 “All is well between the Congress and the NCP. We discussed the need for forging an alliance and decided that the national leadership of both the parties would take the final call on alliance for Assembly and Parliamentary elections,” state Congress chief Ashok Chavan said as he emerged from the meeting held at the official residence of leader of opposition in the state assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil.

“We also discussed the floor management during the upcoming budget session of the state legislative assembly,” Vikhe-Patil said.

Earlier in the day, the state Congress leaders who had gathered for a meeting at the state Congress headquarters at Tilak Bhavan in Mumbai had stressed on the “need to take all like-minded parties together in order to strengthen the fight against the ‘autocratic’ government in the state”.

The NCP too has reciprocated things said by the Congress leaders. Asked whether the Congress and NCP would go for polls together, NCP state unit chief Sunil Tatkare said, “We have agreed on the need to do so. The rest of the things would be decided by Sharad Pawar and Rahul Gandhi in their meeting at Delhi.”

At the national level, Pawar himself has been leading efforts to bring various Opposition parties together. The Save Constitution rally in Mumbai on January 26 was his initiative to bring the opposition parties together, Tatkare added.

 In 1999, Congress and NCP has contested separately and came together after the polls to form the Democratic Front government. Thereafter, they entered a seat sharing arrangement and contested the 2004 and 2009 polls together even after a constant bickering amongst them. Ahead of the 2014 polls the alliance broke off and they contested separately.