Maharashtra Assembly Polls: NCP begins poll campaign from Kolhapur

A day after the NCP inducted eight sitting independent legislators into its partyfold ahead of the state Assembly elections, the party is set to kickstart its first leg of campaign by holding a public rally at Kolhapur in Western Maharashtra today.

"We have decided to start our campaigning from Kolhapur as this was the very place our party was born.

Inspite of the Modi wave across the country, people elected an NCP MP from Kolhapur," Dhananjay Mahadik, NCP MP from Kolhapur constituency said today.

Mocking the BJP-led government at the Centre, Mahadik said that the bypoll results in various states declared today are only showing that Modi's prominence in the mind's of people is decreasing by the day.

"People chose Modi to be the PM as they believed he would live up to the tall promises he made. But see the results of bypolls even in states like UP. It only shows people are losing their patience with him. It won't be long before people start showing their anger to him," he said.

The Additional SP of Kolhapur said that elaborate security arrangements have been made ahead of today's rally, which is expected to be attended by NCP Chief Sharad Pawar, deputy Maharashtra CM Ajit Pawar and state NCP President Sunil Tatkare.

"We have deployed a 400 strong police force for the rally, which, according to NCP leaders will be attended by around 70,000 people. We have made arrangements according to the IB inputs that we have received," DSP Kolhapur Ankit Goyal said.