Ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly polls later in October this year, the Congress high command seems to be intensifying pressure on the NCP to form an alliance. So far, however, no formal proposal has been put forward..IN TUNE with its grand strategy to go at it alone in the 2014 general elections, the Congress has started strengthening itself by pressurising its crucial ally in Maharashtra, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), headed by Union Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar.
Although the Congress has informally approached the NCP, so far, no formal proposal has been put forward. The induction of former Lok Sabha speaker PA Sangma’s daughter and youngest MP, Agadha, into the Union Cabinet, seems to be its first step to woo the NCP leadership.
Incidentally, the NCP will complete 10 years on June 10 this year. The party was started after Pawar, former Lok Sabha speaker Sangma, and Tariq Anwar, were expelled from the party for raising the issue of party president Sonia Gandhi’s foreign nationality.
Later, after the 2004 polls, the Congress succeeded in getting Pawar’s support to form the UPA government at the Centre, and he was made Agriculture Minister in the Union Cabinet. For the first time, the Congress and the NCP contested together in Maharashtra in the recent Lok Sabha elections, and achieved substantial gains, thus weakening the Shiva Sena-BJP combine’s stronghold.
Till the coming out of the Lok Sabha results, Sangma was carrying guns against the Congress for destabilising his government in Meghalaya and openly campaigned for BJP-led NDA candidates in the North-eastern states. However, a sea change in his attitude was seen after his daughter was inducted into the Cabinet. Putting an end to the decade old enmity with Sonia Gandhi, Sangma, for the first time, went to her house along with his daughter on the pretext of inviting her to the wedding of his son. This has given rise to speculations that Sangma is ready to join the Congress.
Strongly reacting to reports that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had extended an invitation to him to join the party, Sangma said that he met the Prime Minister in the Parliament, and extended an invitation to him for the reception of his son's wedding, and the issue of his joining the Congress did not figure in that. "I am fully with Sharad Pawar. He is my leader," he said. However, Pawar dismissed reports of the NCP’s merger with the Congress as a media creation.
Sangma asserted that now the NCP has its own identity and has emerged as a national party. “Sharad Pawar is a leader in his own right. So, where is the question of the NCP merging with the Congress?" he asked. Sangma said that the NCP, with its separate identity, will continue to support the UPA government and cooperate with the Congress.
"We are with the Congress at the Centre, we are with the Congress in Maharashtra, as well as in Goa. Though our attempt to join hands with the Congress did not click in Meghalaya, we will continue to cooperate with them," he added.
Meanwhile, the Congress leaders in Maharashtra are bringing indirect pressure on the NCP to merge with the Congress by openly stating that they will contest alone in the coming Assembly elections, indicating no intention of having any pact with the NCP. However, the NCP leaders don’t seem to be worried.
The arrest of NCP MP and close associate of Pawar, Padamsinh Patil by the CBI in a murder case, is also likely to be used by the Congress to bring pressure on the Congress. Now the Congress has realised that Patil can’t move forward without the NCP in Maharashtra, the largest state after Andhra Pradesh, under its rule. Instead of having a poll alliance, it feels that it would be better to encourage the party to merge with the Congress.
Clearing the clouds over the fate of his party in the wake of Sangma warming up to Sonia Gandhi, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar ruled out a merger of his party with the Congress, declaring that it would maintain its separate existence. At the same time, he emphasised that the NCP's attitude has been one of understanding and cooperation with the Congress and “will continue to be so.”
Pawar also said that his party favoured working with the Congress in the coming Assembly elections in Maharashtra and said, "We feel that the party's (Congress) leadership feels the same way, whatever some leaders in the state may be saying."
