Cong, NCP to remain allies in Maharashtra

ALLIES FOREVER: The nationalist party and the Indian national Congress have been in an alliance since 1998.

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Mumbai: Two months ago, NCP’s Sharad Pawar and Congress President Sonia Gandhi had shared a platform during their election campaign in Vidarbha in the General Elections.

But after the Congress's success in the general elections, there has been pressure on the Congress leadership to follow the UP model and go it alone in the crucial Maharashtra elections later this year.

Leading the anti-alliance move, former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh,echoed his views through the party’s mouthpiece, Sandesh.

But after weeks of indecision, sources tell CNN-IBN that Mrs Gandhi has made up her mind – the Congress will go in for an alliance in Maharashtra with the NCP, but will demand a greater say in the seat sharing.

To reaffirm the alliance, Mrs Gandhi will share a platform with Mr Pawar in Mumbai on Tuesday for the inauguration of Mumbai's much awaited sea link project.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said, “The nationalist party and the Indian national Congress have been in an alliance since 1998. They have been our partners in UPA since 2004 and that is how the situation is.”

Mrs Gandhi's decision comes after local party leaders, including chief minister ashok chavan, indicated that the Congress was not ready to fight the bjp-shiv sena challenge on its own..

NCP’s Tariq Anwar had said that the NCP-Cong alliance would carry on.

The UP-Bihar model of going it alone in elections had been Rahul Gandhi's idea. But while the Congress had little to lose in the Hindi heartland, Maharashtra is a high stakes state, one which the Congress doesn’t want to risk losing at this stage. What happens post elections is still uncertain, but for now, the Congress seems to have decided to play the alliance game in Maharashtra.