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| Parties flex muscles ahead of state assembly polls |
| Kaustubh Kulkarni / Mumbai/ Pune Aug 11, 2009, 00:22 IST |
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In the wake of the scheduled state assembly elections in Maharashtra this October, the leaders of Indian National Congress are building pressure over its Sharad Pawar headed ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) over the seat-sharing issue. While the saffron alliance of Shiv Sena (SS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already announced a 171-117 seat-sharing deal in favour of Sena, leaders from Congress and NCP are busy with muscle-flexing exercise ahead of crucial talks between senior leaders.
While Congress won as many as 17 of 48 seats in the Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra, NCP was reduced to mere eight MPs, which has infused a lot of fuel in the state Congress leadership. While top leaders like former Maharashtra Chief Minister and union minister for heavy industries Vilasrao Deshmukh and Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief Manikrao Thackeray, have been pressing for contesting all the 288 seats without NCP's support, their counterparts from NCP too have been using a similar language to claim more number of seats out of the total 288 constituencies in Maharashtra.
On the other hand, the BJP-SS alliance has struck a deal where Sena would contest 171 seats while the rest would go to the BJP.
Both parties would also leave few constituencies vacant for supporters and independents as and when required. "We already have an understanding over seat sharing with the BJP and we will stick to it. Post de-imitation of constituencies, the seat allotment might change," a top Sena leader told Business Standard over phone. The leader stated that the Sena-BJP combine has no plans to incorporate the Raj Thackeray led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) in elections plans even if the party was polled heavy votes in the Lok Sabha polls.
In the last state assembly elections held in 2004, the Congress had contested 157 seats out of which, it won 69 while the NCP grabbed 71 seats from just 125 it contested. Over last five years, the NCP has gained a lot of presence in every corner of the state and has emerged as a strong political power. However, the Lok Sabha elections proved a disaster for the party when it lost major grounds in it strong hold region of western Maharashtra. Taking a note of this, a number of Congress leaders are in favour of giving up the relations with NCP.
Even top NCP leaders like state irrigation minister Ajit Pawar, NCP's Maharashtra chief and former state home minister RR Patil and the present deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal too have threatened to move out of the Congress-led democratic front.
The top leaders of NCP and congress are expected to meet in New Delhi later this month to take a final call on alliance. The two parties have suffered badly whenever they have fought elections single handed against the Sena-BJP combine. and hence, political observers believe, the NCP-Congress have no option but to continue with the democratic front in Maharashtra.
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