Assembly polls a different ballgame: R R Patil to Sena-BJP

The last day of the last session of 12th Legislative Assembly of Maharashtra today saw a banter between Home Minister R R Patil and Leader of Opposition Eknath Khadse.
The state would go to elections in September-October this year.
Patil told the Sena-BJP members that their self-confidence had shot up due to the Lok Sabha results, but Assembly polls would be different.
"Don't daydream, because Lok Sabha results and the subsequent Assembly election results are always different. The parties which get more MPs don't get similar numbers in the Assembly," he said.
In 1977, Patil reminded, despite a good showing in the Lok Sabha polls the non-Congress parties could not win the subsequent Assembly elections. Similarly, in 1999, though the Sena-BJP won 28 seats in the Lok Sabha polls, it was the Congress and NCP which formed the government in the state.

People of Maharashtra gave the Sena-BJP one chance (in 1995) and subsequently, in the last 15 years, did not allow them to come anywhere near the power, the NCP leader said.
"You can ask anyone whether the government was weak or the opposition was weak. Both political and non-political people are unanimous that the state had a weak opposition all these years," Patil said.