MUMBAI: After an intensive month long shadow-boxing, ifs and buts over seat sharing, the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) late Tuesday night signed a pre-poll alliance pact and decided to continue their 10-year old poll alliance for the coming Maharashtra Legislative Assembly polls which are scheduled to be held on Oct. 13.
In the pact signed in New Delhi, the Congress dictated terms to the NCP and increased it number of seats from 164 in the previous Assembly polls to 174 for the present polls while the NCP climbed down from its earlier 124 seats to 114.
Both the parties declared that they will go to the polls with a joint manifesto and a joint campaign and expressed their intent to take all secular parties including the Republican parties along with them.
Speaking to the media here on Wednesday, the state Congress chief Manikarao Thakre and State Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said that the alliance was necessary to defeat the formidable Shiv Sena-BJP alliance.
Even as the Congress has not yet released the list of it’s candidates, the NCP released the first list of 80 candidates immediately after the alliance pact was signed midnight.
However, state home minister and NCP leader Jayant Patil filed is nomination from Islampur in Sangli district and state industries minister Narayan Rane filed his nomination from Malwan in Ratnagiri district on, while the BJP candidate and daughter of late BJP leader Prmod Mahajan, Poonam Mahajan Rao also filed her nomination from Mumbai on Wednesday.
The Congress and NCP, which make the Democratic Front, have been ruling the state for the past 10 years. They arrived at an understanding last week to continue their alliance.
Meanwhile the prospects of the Republican Left Democratic Front (RLDF), a coalition of 17 parties, in the coming Assembly polls seem to have hit a roadblock at the very outset with one of the factions of RPI, led by Dr. Rajendra Gavai, parting ways with the alliance following differences with Ramdas Athavale, the convener of the Front.
Gavai has also broken off with the RPI (United), a faction of all RPIs including Athavale and Jogendra Kawade. With the split, the prospects of the coalition getting a common symbol are very slim. The differences between the duo cropped up when, according to Gavai, Athawale took the reigns of the front in his hands.
