Congress mulls joint manifesto with NCP

Once alliance is formalised, Congress will launch a joint election campaign

For the first time since joining hands a decade ago to form the government in Maharashtra, the Congress and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) may come out with a joint manifesto in the run-up to the Assembly polls, to be held next month.

State Congress chief Manikrao Thakre, currently camping in Delhi for the selection of candidates, told reporters: “After the alliance is formalised, we will release a common manifesto and launch a joint election campaign in the state.”

If the manifesto comes through, it may be another political victory of the Congress party over the NCP after it forced its junior ally to contest in less seats in the October 13 elections.

A large section of the Congress says the NCP should merge with the Congress and a joint manifesto is seen as a small but significant step in that direction.

“If the joint manifesto finally happens, it will mostly contain our programmes,” said another Congress leader.

Senior NCP leader and Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel also favoured a common manifesto for this election. He too said last week, “Both parties will go for a common manifesto and joint campaign in the elections.”

Although they had been sharing power in the state for the last 10 years, the Congress and the NCP could not issue a joint manifesto on earlier occasions. The NCP wanted to maintain its separate identity and issues, so opted out of a joint manifesto. This time, Congress sources feel, Pawar might agree to a joint manifesto, as the changed political situation is the state is heavily tilted in favour of Sonia Gandhi’s party.

A section of the Congress, however, feels the parties should have different manifestoes. A senior leader didn’t support the plan of a joint manifesto and campaign. “Each party will go to the masses with its own manifesto. There is also no possibility of a joint campaign across the state,” he said.

The Shiv Sena-BJP combine — the main opponents of the ruling Congress-NCP alliance — has already decided to go for a joint campaign and a joint manifesto, for the first time, in this election.