PUNE: Agitated with the frequent statements of Minister for Heavy Industries Vilasrao Deshmukh on threatening to go solo in the forthcoming assembly polls in Maharashtra, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) state President R.R. Patil said on Sunday that the NCP will take a proper decision at the right time on the alliance with the Congress party.
Taking a swipe at the statements of some of Congress leaders regarding their having two options open, Patil said: “Just like you have the two options open, we too are not behind and also have the two options before us. Don’t threaten us, don’t take us for granted.”
Speaking about the criticism being raised over the NCP gaining one seat less in the recently concluded parliamentary polls, Patil said that guidance is now being offered. Stating that there was no need for anyone to preach lessons to NCP leadership, he advised that people should stop guiding them.
Patil asked the party workers to put behind negative thinking and think positive and work hard to spread the good work of the party.
In a tone laced with bitterness toward the Congress, Patil said: “More than power, truth, the people, and more than these, the state of Maharashtra, is important for us. We do not politicize for the sake of power and posts. Don’t get carried away with the little success you got in the parliamentary polls. And remember that both the NCP and Congress achieved 19 percent votes each. Now the NCP is not at the mercy of the Congress party. We would discuss the alliance issue together and take a decision. We respect you, so you, too, should respect us,” he advised.
Stating that the alliance would be in the interest of both the parties, Patil said: “We don’t care if we lose power in Maharashtra. But in matter of secularism, the NCP would never align or compromise with the communal parties at any cost,” he told the party workers.
Meanwhile, in another political development, ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly elections the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which suffered a major setback in the parliamentary polls, has appointed party General Secretary Gopinath Munde as election head for the state.
While the elections would be contested under the leadership of State President Nitin Gadkari, Kaptansingh Solanki, a national general secretary, will be the state in-charge. There were indications in the political circles there would be a major shuffle in the leadership in the state for the ensuing Assembly polls in the backdrop of the major defeat in the general elections.
The BJP had made senior party leader and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as the election in-charge for Maharashtra for the parliamentary elections. But there was a buzz in the political circles that the leadership was not satisfied with the performance of the state in the elections under Modi.
