On the last day of campaigning in Goa on Thursday, NCP chief Sharad Pawar stepped into the political heat in Mandrem to pledge support to an old Maratha friend and Congress nominee Ramakanth Khalap. In these Marathi-speaking areas bordering Maharashtra, Mr Pawar’s campaign could make a critical difference to the Congress nominee against the BJP.
Throughout this election, the Congress-NCP’s joint campaign in Goa has been cohesively structured to send out the right political signals. And none is more keen than Mr Pawar that the “Goa experiment” carry forward to the national level.
Using the Goa approach at the national level would work well for the two parties with crucial elections due in states like Gujarat, Mr Pawar told this newspaper in Mandrem. “This is the direction we will be following for the whole country and in those states where there will be elections,” he said.
He said the Congress and the NCP had not only a political, but also a “moral” obligation to keep the country’s secular fabric intact. A strong alliance would give it more stability and confidence, he said.
Mr Pawar said that despite rancour within the local unit of his party over the number of seats allotted to the NCP, he had stood firm in maintaining the pre-poll alliance to ensure the defeat of the BJP.