MUMBAI: The NCP, which had a humiliating defeat during the last Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra, is going through a crucial phase with the Congress dilly-dallying on the alliance issue ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls.
Though the party headed by Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar may manage to hold on to the Congress alliance this time too, it will in all probability be asked to concede some of the seats, which it contested last time, to the Congress.
The political circles feel that the Congress’ strategy to delay the announcement of the continuation of the alliance is aimed at nullifying the NCP’s bargaining power at the time of seat-sharing talks. It is clear that the Congress wants to take away from the NCP some of the seats and hand it over to the independent MLAs supporting it.
At the meeting chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Monday, the party did not take a final decision on the alliance.
Defence Minister A K Antony, who is in-charge of Maharashtra polls, and a host of senior party leaders from the state including Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, MPCC president Manikrao Thakare and Mumbai Regional Congress Committee president Kripashankar Singh attended the meeting.
Former state Chief Minister and currently Union Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and his supporters are advocating strongly for ending poll tie-up with the NCP.
Though other senior leaders from the state do not aggressively argue for snapping ties with the NCP, they told the high command that the people’s support to Congress in Maharashtra has increased after the Lok Sabha elections and hence the party should not entertain all the claims of the NCP during the seat-sharing talks.
However, Pawar the other day made it clear that the whole alliance would lead to a break down if the Congress did not follow the seat-sharing based on the performance of the alliance partners during 2004 Assembly elections.
