New Delhi, June 29: After reaping the benefits of going it alone in Uttar Pradesh in the recent Lok Sabha elections, the Congress is once again mulling over a similar decision. This time, it’s about Maharashtra.
With barely three months left for the Maharashtra Assembly elections, and faced with growing demands from the party to end the alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Congress leaders are in a dilemma.
This is its first ‘test’ after the general elections and the Congress doesn’t want to take any chance. Party president Sonia Gandhi is expected to visit Mumbai soon, to assess the pre-poll situation and hold talks with key Congress leaders in the state.
But it’s not going to be an easy job for her. For, there is no consensus on the issue among the state leaders.
Former chief minister and now Union Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Minister of State with Independent Charge of Science and Technology, Prithviraj Chavan, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh, and special invitee to the Congress Working Committee (CWC) Anil Shastri are among those against any pre-poll alliance with Sharad Pawar’s party.
According to sources, Sonia held separate talks with Deshmukh and Shinde last Thursday. They reportedly reiterated the benefits of contesting polls alone.
But on the other hand, chief minister Ashok Chavan, senior minister Narayane Rane, and Pradesh Congress Committee president Mankrao Thakre are not averse to a pre- poll pact with the NCP. The ties between Pawar and Maharashtra’s Congress leaders soured considerably after the NCP leader projected himself as a prime ministerial candidate during the Lok Sabha polls and even lobbied with the Third Front and Shiv Sena leaders.
An influential section of Congressmen were for ending the alliance even before Parliamentary polls. The NCP’s dismal performance in the elections has boosted that demand now.
The party had won only eight out of the 23 Lok Sabha seats it contested. The Congress had won 17 out of 25.
Though the sources said Sonia will take a final decision after talking to all stakeholders, they felt the Congress was unlikely to break off with the NCP. Such a move might take Pawar closer to Shiv Sena and the National Democratic Alliance, thus swelling the anti- Congress ranks in the state.
NCP leaders including P.A. Sangma and Tariq Anwar are’ understood to be in favour of a merger with the Congress, a suggestion rejected by Pawar. A section of the NCP leaders, the sources added, were convincing the Congress to continue with the alliance.
The Congress secretary in charge of Maharashtra, Mohan Prakash, said the high command would take an appropriate decision at the right time.
He, however, added: “The NCP is our valuable ally both at the Centre and in the state.” Meanwhile, Deshmukh, who was forced to quit as chief minister in the wake of 26/ 11, is reportedly keen to return to the post after the October polls.
“Though I am a minister in the central government, I am not a member of the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha. I continue to be a member of the state assembly,” Deshmukh said in Mumbai. He was probably trying to rub it in that he has six months to try and become an MP, if not become the chief minister once again.
–PTI