PUNE: Following the humiliating defeat of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidates in Maval and Shirur Lok Sabha constituencies in Pune and in some constituencies in western Maharashtra, the Congress party is now rethinking on going to the assembly polls expected to be held in October on its own without the alliance of NCP.
Speaking to Arab News, former Chief Minister and All India Congress Committee (AICC) member Vilasrao Deshmukh said that with the remarkable performance of the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress party leaders in the state were of the opinion that the party should fight the assembly elections on its own merits.
“Had we fought on our own in the present elections without the alliance of the NCP, I am sure, the Congress could have won more seats,” he said and added that he would put forth his views on this aspect once again before the Congress High Command in Delhi. The Congress move to desert the NCP follows the drubbing the NCP received in the elections, more due to the projection of Sharad Pawar as the future prime ministerial candidate by some NCP leaders including federal Aviation Minister Praful Patel and state NCP President R.R. Patil.
This aspect of the projection of Pawar, who himself was also eager and wished to be the prime minister, boomeranged on the NCP badly, said a senior NCP leader, who said that their supremo had to eat humble pie, while faulting his nephew and state Irrigation Minister Ajit Pawar for the humiliating defeat of the NCP candidates.
The lone Congress candidate to win from Pune for a record third time, Suresh Kalmadi, demanded the resignation of Ajit from his ministerial post as well as from the post of guardian minister of Pune district.
Breaking his silence after winning again the Pune Lok Sabha seat, Kalmadi criticized Ajit Pawar on Saturday. “Ajit should resign, owning responsibility for the NCP’s defeat in two other constituencies in the district,” Kalmadi said.
A sarcastic Kalmadi “thanked” Ajit for not campaigning for him. “We now see what happened to NCP in the constituencies where he campaigned,” he said, adding that Pawar junior should now take responsibility for the party’s defeat in Shirur and Maval constituencies and resign. He made it plain that there would not be any disagreement with Ajit over city politics.
Kalmadi thanked Sharad Pawar and RPI members for their whole-hearted support sans any reference to NCP. He said, “I wonder how the NCP’s local leaders disobeyed Sharad Pawar’s directives.”
