NCP president Sharad Pawar, who exuded confidence about the Congress-NCP combine returning to power after the coming assembly polls in the state despite the current political situation, however, cautioned party workers against adopting a languid approach, and urged them on to work hard to turn the tide.
The two parties will continue to fight elections together, he said on Tuesday. "Congress and the NCP, which are seeking a fourth term in office, will fight the assembly polls in alliance. In the next two months, only if we expedite implementing the important decisions we have taken, will the ruling combine benefit," said Pawar.
Congress won only two seats in Maharashtra in the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections.
Pawar has convened a meeting of NCP ministers, senior leaders and office-bearers on May 22 and 23 to take stock of the Lok Sabha results in which his party's tally had been whittled down to four seats. The NCP had contested 21 seats.
On Lok Sabha results, the outgoing Union agriculture minister said he had expected the BJP to win a little over 200 seats and Congress' tally to be in the range of 80-100. "However, the actual results were much different and unexpected," he said. Pawar said that the BJP had made a good use of the electronic media to campaign aggressively.
"We had conceived brilliant schemes like the Food Security Act, but failed to implement them effectively. A lot of time was wasted on issues like making Aadhar Card mandatory for gas cylinders. Even in cases of corruption like 2G, CWG and Coalgate, it was the judiciary which initiated action. So people were angry with the government. And in the end, we had to face people's wrath," the NCP chief said.
Prithviraj Chavan, the chief minister of Maharashtra, said on Tuesday that expressing resentment by tendering resignation doesn't work in Congress. "The party high command will decide the future course of action. There is no point in resigning and then withdrawing it. People's anger was against us and we have accepted the mandate," said Chavan.
The chief minister said the state government would, in the coming days, take several important decisions that would benefit the people.
Expressing confidence, Chavan said corrective measures being taken by the Congress-NCP combine would help them sail smoothly in the assembly elections. "It is clear that people were angry at the Congress. In states like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Odissa the ruling dispensations managed to hold on before the Modi wave. From this we have learnt a lesson, and will work towards taking corrective measures," said the chief minister.
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