NCP president Sharad Pawar who enjoys good rapport with the state and national CPI leaders tried to strike a balance. However, CPI's reported adamant stand left Pawar with no alternative but to politely say "thank you."It must be mentioned here that Pawar had got majority of support from the cooperative sector especially from western Maharashtra except for sugar barons like Bhausaheb Thorat and his son Balasaheb Thorat from Sangamner taluka in the Ahmednagar district and former MP from Karhad Prithviraj Chavan who had remained with the Congress I.

Ahmednagar district has been a traditional bastion of the Congress-I. However, since 1995 elections, the ruling Shiv Sena and BJP alliance has made definite inroads. Sugar baron and former Congress leader Balasaheb Vikhe-Patil who had been a five-time parliamentarian, crossed over to the Shiv Sena and got elected from the Ahmednagar constituency defeating Congress-I nominee Dadasaheb Shelke.

In the ensuing elections, BJP has agreed to let Sena field its candidate at Kopargaon while its own candidate would contest from Ahmednagar constituency. Thus, NCP has decided not to leave the Kopargaon seat to CPI and let Sena have a cake-walk.

It has decided to contest the Kopargaon and Ahmednagar seats along with its electoral ally, the Republican Party of India and Samajwadi Party with a view to giving a strong fight to Vikhe-Patils and Thorats. NCP has also arrived at a seat-sharing understanding with the Shetkari Sanghatana led by Sharad Joshi. It has agreed to leave the Nanded parliamentary seat to the Sanghatana. This seat was won by former minister and a son-in-law of former Union home minister SB Chavan, Bhaskarrao Khatgaonkar, in 1998 elections who had defeated the BJP nominee Dhanajirao Deshmukh by a margin of 47,287 votes.According to NCP sources, Shetkari Sanghatana which has a clout in Marathwada, would give a strong fight to Khatgaonkar who is likely to be fielded again by the Congress-I.

The Sanghatana is likely to get about five to seven assembly seats from Marathwada and Vidarbha regions. During 1995 assembly elections, the lone nominee Vamanrao Chatap was elected from the naxalite-infested Chandrapur district while during the 1990 elections it had won about seven seats largely from Vidarbha region.