Congress-NCP unity talks in Maharashtra: Well begun is half done

What has brought the opposition parties into overdrive is the rupture in ties between the BJP and the Shiv Sena, its oldest ideological ally of 25 years

A strange coincidence, this. In New Delhi, Congress President Rahul Gandhi is believed to have insisted that the party would do very well in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha polls 15 months away.
 
Gandhi, in an informal chat, is understood to have said that Maharashtra would be prominent among more than six states where the party expects to fare well, raising its tally by some 70 seats.
 
At almost the same time in Mumbai last week, a meeting was on at the official residence of the Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra assembly, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, a