NCP looks for local allies to fight polls

The two parties had reached an agreement whereby the NCP was allotted nine seats to contest in Gujarat.

Though the Nationalist Congress Party is in a dilemma on whether to field candidates in the May 5 Karnataka Assembly elections or not,given the partys stance on the border dispute between the state and Maharashtra,the Congresss coalition partner is looking to expand its base by allying with other regional parties in other states in future elections.

In Bihar,for instance,as the Congress woos the Janata Dal (United) ahead of the 2014 elections,the NCP is learnt to be looking at the Rashtriya Janata Dal as its prospective alliance partner,along with Ram Vilas Paswans Lok Janashakti Party.

Although the NCP does not have any significant presence in Bihar,it is preparing to field at least two candidates in the next Lok Sabha elections Union minister Tariq Anwar and former minister Nagmani,who recently joined the NCP after stints in RJD,BJP,JD(U),LJP and the Congress at different points of time. Anwar is said to be looking at Katihar Lok Sabha constituency.

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This comes even as the NCP top brass has indicated that its alliance with the Congress at the Centre and in Maharashtra will remain intact in the next Assembly and Lok Sabha elections despite the NCPs strong reservations against the way the Congress is dealing with its coalition partners. The coordination committee that the NCP had forced the Congress to revive in Maharashtra last year remains only on paper even as a similar mechanism created at the Centre has become irrelevant after the pullout of the Trinamool and DMK from the UPA. While the NCP leadership has always held a grouse against the Congress for its alleged failure to adhere to coalition dharma,what was learnt to have further miffed the NCP leadership was the way the Congress treated its ally in the last Gujarat Assembly elections.

The two parties had reached an agreement whereby the NCP was allotted nine seats to contest in Gujarat. The Congress,however,fielded its official candidates on six seats and Independents on the remaining three. We could have won at least six out of these nine seats if the Congress had not fielded candidates against us, rued Union Minister and senior NCP leader Praful Patel.

In October last year,the Congress had engineered defection of all five NCP MLAs in Arunachal Pradesh into the Congress party.

In Karnataka,the NCP has still not decided whether it should field candidates in the Assembly elections,given that the party has been supporting Maharashtras claims on 865 Marathi-speaking villages in Karnataka. The NCP leadership is re-visiting its strategy to expand the base in other states,especially in the wake of its unexpected success in the Northeast. In Nagaland,the NCP surprised everyone when it secured around 7 per cent votes with four MLAs.