MUMBAI, 14 January 2007 — Talks between the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress to forge an alliance in the forthcoming elections to the Mumbai Municipal Corporation collapsed yesterday. Both parties announced that they would fight the elections separately.
The NCP attributed the failure of the talks to the Congress party’s unwillingness to negotiate a deal despite repeated meetings. A party spokesman said the NCP will contest all the 227 corporation seats.
A Congress spokesman confirmed the failure of the talks with the NCP and said the party will go it alone in the elections.
Meanwhile, Priya Dutt, the Congress member of Parliament from Mumbai Northwest, yesterday slammed party bigwigs for not consulting her while selecting candidates for the municipal elections. She threatened to retaliate “for this insult” prior to the poll.
In a related development, supporters of Mumbai Congress chief Gurudas Kamat and Youth Congress workers yesterday fought each other with rocks and bamboo sticks. The Congress office in South Mumbai was ransacked by angry workers denied nomination for the elections. Youth Congress workers alleged that Kamat favored his supporters over the Youth Congress workers while selecting candidates for the poll.
