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ShareMumbai: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Sharad Pawar has expressed its displeasure over the "irresponsible" statements originating from the All India Congress Committee's (AICC's) office on the Congress-NCP alliance in Maharashtra, as Congress keeps NCP guessing on their pre-poll alliance.
Praful Patel, the minister for civil aviation and an NCP leader, conveyed the party's unhappiness over AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh's and union heavy industries minister Vilasrao Deshmukh's statement advocating an NCP merger into the Congress. The Congress leaders had expressed their leaning towards a merger to Ahmed Patel, advisor to Congress party president Sonia Gandhi.
The NCP has ruled out the possibility of merging into Congress ahead of the October assembly elections in the state and has madeit clear that Congress has to treat
the party equally if it wants the pre-poll alliance to continue. The party has decided to push the ball in Sonia Gandhi's court.
A state team led by chief minister Ashok Chavan visited Sonia Gandhi to discuss the fate of the Congress-NCP alliance for the October assembly elections. Senior AICC spokesperson Mohan Prakash has confirmed that the party's "preparedness for the elections was discussed", but they still have not come out with a decision.
While NCP president Sharad Pawar has undertaken several confidence-building meetings with his core group to assert the party's national identity, the party alleges that Congress is talking about the merger to break NCP. In 2004, Congress contested on 166 seats with NCP on 122. Rumours are that Congress now wants NCP to accept only 100 seats.
According to NCP general secretary Gurunath Kulkarni, "It would be better if Congress concentrates on its own party matter rather than interfere with our work."
