The Sangli Municipal Corporation election outcome is going to drastically alter the political dynamics of the coalition in western Maharashtra. If there are growing echoes within the Congress to break the alliance with the NCP,the Sharad Pawar-led party is expected to grow more aggressive in a bid to restore its ground.
The top leadership of the Congress has already taken the decision to use the local forces to consolidate its base in western Maharashtra to give the NCP a difficult time in 2014 polls. AICC and MPCC leaders believe this is the right time to strike in Pawars stronghold to exploit the anti-NCP situation to its advantage as opposition in not united. However,they indicate that pre-poll talks need to be handled well as often Pawar senior succeeds in tricking them when it comes to electoral bargaining.
Even if the central leaderships of the two parties finally reconcile to a pre-poll alliance in Maharashtra ahead of the 2014 polls,the state is bracing for the Congress and NCP taking their differences to the streets more openly.
The NCP isnt helping its cause by taking its politics to a new low,with the prime example being the abrasive behaviour of its Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar who,notwithstanding corruption charges that he faces,went so far as to accuse Cabinet colleagues of the Congress of hobnobbing with criminals.
So while the NCP can blame the Sangli setback on everything from selection of candidates and shift of Muslim voters to failure to get support from other local groups,it cannot overlook that the people reposed faith in the Congress at the end of the day. Should this trend continue,it will upset the calculations of Sharad Pawar. While he emphasised last week that the party should correct its image in public,nobody in the party appears to know from where to make a new beginning.
The Congress also managed to put up a rare united face,while the NCPs Minister for Rural Development Jayant Patil and Home Minister R R Patil were busy slugging against each other in Sangli district.
Shubhangi is a senior editor based in Mumbai
shubhangi.khapre@expressindia.com
