NCP wants wider alliance for Maharashtra elections

As the Congress struggles to find its feet post the Lok Sabha elections debacle, key ally NCP has given a call to widen the UPA by getting on board like-minded parties, such as the SP, the BSP and the Left, particularly for the Maharashtra Assembly elections.

The party has complained that the Congress is yet to realise the need for new allies to take on an upbeat Shiv Sena-BJP, which swept off the Grand Old Party from Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha polls. 

The Congress managed to win just two seats in the state, while the NCP bagged four. Sharad Pawar’s party also won a seat each in Bihar and Lakshadweep. With its “success” in Maharashtra, the NCP wanted to contest from half of the 288 Assembly seats in the state from the Congress. However, the demand has been rejected outright. 

“All secular forces need to come together. The Congress should understand the new political reality. 2014 is not 2009,” said NCP general secretary and Rajya Sabha member D P Tripathi.

The NCP feels that the Congress made the right move by finding common cause with the RJD and the JD(U) in Bihar. The three parties, which contested the Lok Sabha elections against each other in that state, have declared that they would contest the Assembly by-elections there together.

A senior Bihar Congress leader admitted that the alliance with Lalu Prasad’s RJD and Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) was required to tackle the BJP-LJP upsurge in the state. “In times of crises, a snake, a mongoose and an eagle have to come together till the bad times recede,” he said.

The Congress-NCP alliance has been ruling Maharashtra since 1999, and both parties admit that there could be no worse an election for them than the current one.