The Hindu : Front Page : Congress, NCP part ways in Maharashtra civic polls

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Sunday, Jan 14, 2007
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Congress, NCP part ways in Maharashtra civic polls

Special Correspondent

They failed to agree on seat-sharing arrangements

MUMBAI: The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) who share power in Maharashtra failed on Saturday to agree on seat sharing and will now clash in elections for the State's nine out of ten municipal corporations going to the polls on February 1, much to the delight of the saffron alliance of the Shiv Sena-BJP. The civic poll is billed as a mini general election in the State.

The Congress and the NCP had a clash of interests in Mumbai, Thane, Nashik and Akola. Of these, their local leaders could agree on seat sharing in Akola but not in crucial Mumbai, Thane and Nashik at the end of prolonged negotiations. Leaders of both parties, who had been claiming progress in their talks till Friday, blamed each other for the collapse and parting of ways.

They had already decided to contest separately in Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Ulhasnagar, Solapur, Nagpur and Amravati. On the other hand, the Shiv Sena and the BJP have succeeded in forging alliance in all ten cities of which they are ruling in four: Mumbai, Thane, Nashik and Akola.

Four-cornered poll

Since the Left and Republican parties have formed a third front, the civic poll in the State will be four-cornered. The Congress had hoped to dislodge the Shiv Sena from its last power base of the municipal corporations of Mumbai and Thane after having wounded it in most of the Assembly by-elections following the defection of the Sena leader, Narayan Rane.

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