Maharashtra polls: Congress-NCP face an uphill task

In a do-or-die scenario, the Congress-NCP combine faces an uphill task against a formidable BJP-Shiv Sena saffron alliance in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly polls scheduled on October 21.

In terms of vote share in the Lok Sabha polls or the leads in the Assembly segments, the Congress-NCP is far behind its ruling opponents. Add to it, the results tally of the 2014 Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls, it is a major challenge for the Sharad Pawar-led NCP and the Grand Old Party.

The Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has made the battle of votes more interesting.

The elections to the 288-seat Assembly may be much on expected lines if figures are to be taken into consideration. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the vote share was BJP (27.8 %), Shiv Sena (19.3 %), Congress (18 %), NCP (17.2 %) and VBA (14 %).

Now, if one looks at the leading position in Assembly segments in Lok Sabha, the BJP-Sena leads in 230-odd seats of the 288 segments.

If one goes by 2014 Assembly polls, the BJP and Sena has a strength of 122 and 63 respectively (total 185) as against Congress 42 and NCP 41 (total 83). "It is a difficult situation. If one looks at this strength of 83, more than 15 sitting legislators have switched to BJP or Sena," a senior political observer said.

Both, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and state BJP president Chandrakant Patil are saying in public meetings that the BJP on its own will get working majority and the alliance will cross 220 seats. Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray has also said that the alliance will get whooping majority.

"There is an economic recession in India, we expect some swing. We will definitely improve our tally," a senior leader of Congress-NCP alliance said, but added that VBA continues to be a worry and it is proven B-Team of BJP.