Cong,NCP join hands for zilla parishad polls

Elections of ZP presidents in 27 of the 33 ZPs that had gone to polls in March 2007 are being held in phases till December 5,as the two-and-a-half-year term of ZP presidents ended in September.

The decision to join hands was taken on Thursday at a meeting between Maharashtra Congress chief Manikrao Thakre and NCP state chief R R Patil. The meeting was part of a series of Congress initiatives to play big brother to the NCP after the former’s success in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

“Of the 27 ZPs that will elect new presidents,we (ruling alliance partners) are in power in 20,” Thakre said,“If we unite and sever ties with other parties,we may capture the top post in 24 ZPs.” With no pre-poll alliance with the NCP in the 2007 elections,there were tie-ups with saffron parties at the local level ,he said.

The NCP camp is,however,accusing the Congress of having done the same. “Even Congress workers had entered into unusual alliances in local bodies,” a senior NCP leader said,adding that though his party had formed the ‘Pune pattern’ (in which the NCP had formed alliance with the Sena-BJP to wrest power from the Congress in the Pune Municipal Corporation),it was disbanded on the eve of LS polls in favour of a pre-poll alliance with the Congress.