NCP, Congress part ways in Maharashtra

The party has also decided to pull out of the state government and deputy CM Ajit Pawar will submit resignation to governor

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Thursday announced its decision to sever its 15-year alliance with the Congress, after the two parties failed to reach an agreement over the number of seats each one would contest in the elections to the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly.

The NCP decided to fight the Assembly polls with “like-minded parties”. The Congress stuck to its 124-seat offer to the alliance partner, thanks to the unbending stand taken by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and party leader Madhusudan Mistry.

State deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said NCP would pull out of the government and its ministers would give their resignation to Governor C Vidyasagar Rao on Friday. According to sources, by Friday afternoon, Presidential rule will be clamped in the state and the present dispensation would be placed under suspended animation. The tenure of the Congress-NCP government ends on November 8.

The NCP’s announcement came minutes after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena called off their 25-year  alliance. This is likely to throw up a four-cornered contest in the state.

Earlier, the NCP took strong objection to the Congress’ move to release its first list of candidates on Wednesday when negotiations had not been concluded. The Congress had announced its nominees for seats the NCP or independents supported by it had contested and won last time.

Praful Patel told reporters  the NCP made all efforts to save the alliance. “The NCP was keen that both the parties should together fight the Assembly polls to defeat communal and fundamentalist forces. Our party president Sharad Pawar had taken the initiative to hold talks with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for continuation of the alliance. The NCP was firm on equal share, as the party had won two more seats than the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections.”

Patel recalled that during the 2004 and 2009 Assembly elections, the Congress had given 124 seats to the NCP. He said there was nothing new in the Congress proposal.

 

Patel cited that Congress party's logic to give 124 seats in 2009 poll was NCP had won mere eight seats against 17 by it in the last Lok Sabha election. ''Therefore, NCP was reiterating that its claim over 144 seats is quite valid as the Congress should go by same formula when NCP has won two more seats. But Congress declined to go by that and the dead lock continued,'' he added.

 

Patel on last Saturday  had given an ultimatum up to September 23 to Congress to quickly settle seat sharing talks.