Congress reluctant to join hands with NCP for civic polls

While the BJP and Shiv Sena are heading towards forming an alliance in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls, it is exactly the opposite in the Congress-NCP fold. City Congress leaders have expressed their reluctance to join hands with the NCP in the forthcoming civic polls.

“The local leaders and activists are not in favour of forging an alliance with the NCP as they feel it will serve no purpose for the party’s growth in the city. We will communicate our feelings to the party high command,” said Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam.

In the last BMC polls, both the Congress and NCP had contested together and managed to win 65 seats, with the former winning 52 and later 14. However, they had failed to dislodge the Shiv Sena-BJP combine, which had won the power in the BMC with comfortable majority.

Mr Nirupam said that the party should take into account the opinion of its grassroots workers before taking the final call on alliance with the NCP. However, we will abide by the high command's decision on this matter, he added.

The Congress-NCP combine has already announced their intentions to contest the local bodies elections in the state alone. They had also contested the Vidhan Sabha elections separately due to the differences over seat sharing.

Commenting on this, NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said that the Congress is a different party and they are free to take their own decision. \"We never asked the Congress to form an alliance with us. But we have always preferred to join hands with like-minded parties. If the Congress does not come together with us, we will enter the BMC polls with other like-minded parties.\"

Sena and BJP have already announced their decision to fight the local bodies elections together in the state. Though Mumbai and Thane are not included in the polls, both the parties are expected to form an alliance there, too, going by the present trend.