Admitting that the ruling Congress and NCP coalition have an uphill task on hand in the state assembly polls likely to be held in October, NCP chief and former Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar turned up the pressure on Congress, insisting that the distribution of assembly seats be based on the analysis of the Lok Sabha results.
Shiv Sena and BJP-led Mahayuti swept 42 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, with NCP getting four and Congress scraping through in just two. Senior NCP leaders have been insisting that the seat-sharing for assembly polls be re-worked to reflect the changed ground realities. In 2009, Congress had contested 174 seats leaving 114 to NCP, winning 82 and 62 segments, respectively.
"We do not think that winning these polls will be easy. But it won't be impossible," said Pawar, adding that people had repeatedly given them a mandate unlike the opposition, which had been voted out of power in five years.
On questions about his nephew and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and the party's Maharashtra chief Sunil Tatkare stressing that NCP would go it alone if it did not get 144 seats from Congress, Pawar said he was the party's national president (and hence his word was final).
"We will not just demand seats. We may think on the basis of the ability to win a seat and (a party's) strength there," said Pawar, while admitting that the results of the Lok Sabha polls were not good for them.
He added that for the assembly seat-sharing, they were studying the situation in various assembly constituencies in the Lok Sabha election results. "Our stance is on taking seats which we can win," Pawar said, adding that "this may be more than 144 or less than 144".
"Congress and NCP have been fighting the polls together for the last 10 years and this formula will continue,"said Pawar, adding that discussions on seat-sharing and exchange of seats would be held with the Congress national leadership after which talks would shift to the state. "But the guidelines will be framed at the national level," said Pawar, adding that there were indications that the state assembly polls were likely to be held in the second week of October.
He was also non-committal on Congress-NCP projecting a chief ministerial candidate.
Pawar said people had voted for BJP at the Centre for a stable government and for seeking solutions to important issues like inflation. Many social sections, including housewives, had hoped that this regime change would be reflected in a reversal in the situation and "good days beginning", but they were feeling let down, and this disillusionment would be reflected in the assembly polls. Pawar, however, said any new government needed time to effect a change.
He also expressed concern at incidents of communal flare-ups in Maharashtra, especially after the new dispensation taking charge at the Centre.
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