SANGLI, 8 January 2007 — Hordes of former Congress leaders who had joined the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are keen to return to the Congress party and the exodus of such leaders had begun. This was revealed by Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh while addressing a late night press conference on Saturday.
Deshmukh further stated that the return of the NCP leaders and followers would strengthen the Congress. “In the next assembly elections, the Congress would have an absolute majority, and would not have to depend on the support of other parties. It would be a clear Congress government and not a coalition government,” he said.
Asked about the talks of the merger of NCP with the Congress, Deshmukh refused to comment on the merger issue and said, “I can only say that such a move has begun from the lower ranks and would reach the higher level soon.”
Meanwhile, a fierce multicorner contest is expected in the civic polls to the ten big municipal corporation polls to be held on Feb. 1.
The filing of nominations for the elections will commence today. The ten corporations that are going to the polls are Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Ulhasnagar, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Solapur, Akola, Amravati and Nagpur.
