Congress sounds bugle for Maharashtra assembly polls

The Maharashtra Congress Saturday sounded the bugle for the upcoming assembly election by deputing co-ordinators to all 288 seats to assess the pre-poll ground reality.

Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said this was part of the overall strategy of the Congress to strengthen the party organisation and select good candidates.

"This does not mean that we shall be contesting all the 288 seats on our own," Chavan clarified, referring to ally Nationalist Congress Party with which it hopes to capture the state government for a fourth consecutive term.

In the 2009 assembly elections, the Congress fought on 166 seats and NCP contested 122 seats.

Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee chief Manikrao Thakre addressed a meeting of all district party committee chiefs and other office-bearers as a pre-poll planning exercise involving the grassroots organisation.

Thakre is reported to have instructed all the lower-level party leaders to ensure proper coordination with their NCP counterparts and not to spoil the pre-poll atmosphere with local level bickerings.

Both Chavan and Thakre admitted that in view of the intensive negative propaganda of the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, it has become a challenge for the Congress to effectively put forth its developmental works and achievements before the electorate.

The duo assured that if there were any loopholes in the campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls, these would be overcome in the assembly election.

As many as 15 of the 27 candidates who contested the parliamentary elections attended the meeting.