State Congress to extend tie-ups for civic polls

With several mayoral elections and those of Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti presidents due shortly, the Congress hopes to make a better showing at the local self government bodies as well. Several of these elections were lost the last time round because partymen chose to side with the Opposition. In a series of resolutions passed at the joint meeting today, which was chaired by MPCC president Ranjit Deshmukh, equal credit was given to Sonia Gandhi, Sitaram Kesri and Sharad Pawar for the Congress’ resounding victory inMaharashtra.

Addressing reporters later in the evening, Deshmukh said he hoped that other like-minded parties would also join in the alliance for the future and expressed concern at Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray’s alleged attempt to divide Indians by singling out Muslims, Christians and Dalits. “Chief Minister Manohar Joshi too has said that his party will attempt to consolidate the Hindu vote at the next elections. This is a matter of great concern. “A government belongs to all the people and should represent all communities. The saffron alliance is attempting to single out one above the other,” he said. He hoped these statements did not mark the beginning of another phase of divisive politics in Maharashtra.

In reply to queries, Deshmukh said the Congress would not make any attempts to topple the Sena-BJP government in the State as it did not “yet have numbers inside the House”. However, the government had no moral right to continue as in more than 205 of the 288 Assembly segments, the Congress andits allies as well as other secular parties including the Peasants’ and Workers’ Party and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had secured a lead, he said.

The MPCC was also studying details of “who within the party helped the Opposition and who outside the party helped the Congress,” he said. Adequate action would be taken against the rebels and those sympathetic to the Congress would be duly rewarded in due course of time, he added.