NCP piggybacks Congress to make inroads into city

The Nationalist Congress Party is keen on a partnership with the Congress in the municipal corporation elections to make inroads in Mumbai as this would help them make an impact in the 2014 assembly elections.

Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has clearly indicated that the alliance with the Congress in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation will help them consolidate the party’s position in the city. Of the 227 seats in Mumbai, NCP’s stronghold is restricted to 20-25 seats.

In the 2007 civic elections, NCP won 19 seats and Congress 83. The Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance bagged 116 seats — Sena won 87 seats and BJP 29.

Even after three rounds of talks between Congress and NCP leaders, the issue of alliance remains unresolved.

What compounded the problem are external factors, which make the two parties suspicious about each other’s strategy.

“Unless the discussions for the last seat are through, we cannot predict about the alliance,” said an NCP leader, requesting anonymity.

Of the 10 civic corporations that will go to polls, the NCP seeks to join hands with the Congress in Mumbai, Akola and Nagpur and turned down Congress demand for alliance in Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad, Thane and Amravati.

In addition, speculations about a meeting between NCP president Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Thursday upset the Congress top brass.

Adopting a tough stand against the NCP because of its selective alliance strategy, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief Manikrao Thakre said the party will not give more than 34 of the 227 seats to NCP.

“The Congress is not going to bow to NCP highhandedness. If they don’t give us space in their stronghold areas, we will make things difficult for them in Mumbai,” said a Congress leader.

Officially the NCP has dismissed speculations that Sena was seeking Pawar’s help to bail them out where they do not have an alliance with Congress. Giving a realistic picture about the party hold in Mumbai, a senior NCP general secretary said: “If we are in alliance with the Congress, the chances of improving the seat tally from 19 to 25 cannot be ruled out. And, if we have to contest alone then we may have to struggle to retain the 20-seat tally. But, the advantage would be that we would have activated our party base in all 227 seats.”

“However, in alliance with Congress we will not be able to field candidates in more than 65 seats. The dispute between Congress and NCP is not over numbers, but selection of seats.”

An NCP activist said: “The party has identified 27 seats as its stronghold, but Congress is not willing to give up their claim.”

But, Mumbai Regional Congress Committee president Kripashankar Singh argued: “We have a better chance to win these 27 seats, where we were second to Sena-BJP, compared to NCP, whose base is poor.”