Amidst indication that NCP supremo Sharad Pawar would try to focus on winnability rather than a higher number of seats, alliance talks between the Congress and the NCP for the Maharashtra Assembly elections formally began on Tuesday with delegations from both sides meeting in Mumbai on Tuesday.
While Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan led the Congress team comprising of former chief ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushil Kumar Shinde, PCC chief Manikrao Thakre and Narayan Rane, the NCP team included Praful Patel, Chhagan Bhujbal, RR Patil, Ajit Pawar and Govindrao Adik. Party circles were hopeful that the talks, just three days before the official notification for the Assembly polls are to come, would lead to continuation of the ten year old alliance between the two parties.
Over the last few days, however, here have been disconcerting voices, especially from the Congress, with its leaders like Vilasrao Deshmukh and AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh toeing the ?go it alone? line.
The NCP, on its part, had signalled that it was willing to play such games with the Congress though its leadership privately conceded that such an action would be suicidal for both parties. However, NCP sources said on Tuesday that Pawar was ready to be accomodative not because he agreed to the Congress contention that the NCP had lost much ground as the Lok Sabha polls suggested, but because he was a pragmatic politician who was more keen to increase his tally from the last time. Pawar?s calculations, the sources said, was to better the 71 seats which the NCP won in the last Assembly elections and hope for anything between 80 to 85 seats. ?Given such a thinking, it is not of great importance whether the NCP gets to contest 110 or 120 seats,? a senior party leader said.
Meanwhile, in Pune NCP MP and daughter of Sharad Pawar, Supriya Sule said the alliance was working well at Centre but it was unfortunate to see the course it has taken in Maharashtra.
Baramati MP and NCP leader Sharad Pawar?s daughter, Sule said that in the last five and a half years, there was no better ally for the Congress than the NCP. She pointed out that the NCP had been supportive of all the UPA government initiatives.
