All is well between Congress and NCP, says Ashok Chavan

Everything is fine between the Congress party and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and we will contest the upcoming Assembly elections together, said state unit Congress chief Ashok Chavan here on Saturday.

"All is well between the Congress party and the NCP. We will fight the Assembly elections together. Some leaders have expressed their displeasure (against NCP). We will short it out. But this is clear that we will contest the polls in an alliance," Chavan told media persons here after a meeting of the state party leaders.

Chavan also invited Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi to contest the Assembly elections in alliance with the Congress.

The former Chief Minister's comments come after reports appeared in a section of media suggesting that some leaders had advocated scrapping ties with their ally NCP.

These leaders had reportedly blamed Sharad Pawar-led NCP of not supporting the Congress candidates in the Lok Sabha elections leading to a humiliating defeat of the party.

He slammed Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackray over his plans to visit Ayodhya.

"Since elections are due in Maharashtra, Uddhav suddenly started remembering Lord Ram. Be it the visit of Prime Minister Modi or of Uddhav, it not more than a photo opportunity," he said.

He attacked Cabinet Minister Girish Mahajan over his claim that many Congress and NCP legislators are in touch with the saffron party.

Earlier in the day, Mahajan had said, "At least 25 MLAs of the Congress and the NCP are in touch with me. Some of them have either met me personally or called me over the phone or have sent feelers through the third party that they are interested in joining the BJP.