Mumbai: Buoyed by the results of the exit polls predicting a Congress victory in the Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls, the faction in the Maharashtra Congress, which is against sharing equal number of seats with the National Congress Party (NCP) for the 2019 elections, is now asking the state leadership to withdraw from the alliance agreement.
The Congress and NCP have decided to contest 24 seats each in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Maharashtra has a total of 48 Lok Sabha seats.
But the anti-NCP faction within the state Congress wants the party to re-think the deal as they feel that the NCP is too weak to field candidates in all 24 seats. They feel the Congress should stick to its earlier formula of 27-21 that was used in the 2014 elections.
A group within the state Congress led by former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan is known to be against the NCP. It is even against contesting the elections in an alliance with the party. But the weak position of the Congress has forced the group to agree to the alliance.
However, the exit polls reports from the five states has given them an opportunity to push their demand.
In its bid to forge a grand alliance against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state, the Congress had decided to agree to sharing equal number of seats with NCP.
Earlier, the Congress used to contest 27 seats and the NCP 21. But the NCP demanded an equal number of seats in the upcoming elections and the Congress leadership has reportedly accepted the deal. Also both parties are expected to adjust the smaller alliance partners from their respective quotas.
“The NCP is struggling to field strong candidates even in 17-18 seats, but still the Congress is giving them 24 seats. Hence, there is no need to agree to the demand and the NCP should be given 21 seats. The alliance partner could be adjusted from the Congress quota,” said a former cabinet minister and Congress leader.
The exit polls predict an easy victory for the Congress in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh as well as Chhattisgarh. If these polls prove to be true, then the Congress will be back in the reckoning in Maharashtra.
Hence, all key players in alliance talks from the Congress and the NCP are keenly awaiting the poll results.
