Maharashtra Congress not yet ready for elections; NCP begins poll preparation
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- Category: Maharashtra Political News
- Last Updated: Thursday, 22 January 2015 20:59
Maharashtra Congress not yet ready for elections; NCP begins poll preparation
The Congress, Maharashtra's main ruling party for the past decade and a half, is still in a quandary over how to approach the assembly elections after its complete decimation in the Lok Sabha polls.
The party high command in New Delhi has yet to announce any steps in response to demands from the state to restructure the Maharashtra unit. While some leaders talk about an imminent announcement, others say they don't even know under whose leadership that they are going to fight the elections: current Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan or his predecessor, Ashok Chavan.
Its partner in the government, the Nationalist Congress Party that too faced a similar rout, has been quicker in launching damage-control measures. Aware that almost the entire north Indian votes went to the Shiv Sena-BJP combine in the Lok Sabha polls, the NCP has decided to make amendments and woo the community by nominating a north leader from Thane as MLC. NCP has analysed the results to find out where have they gone wrong and has begun preparations for the assembly polls, a Congress leader said. "We know we are going to lose power," he said. "Let's at least put up a good fight."
Many in the party had their eyes and hopes set on former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan after the Lok Sabha debacle. While state leaders wanted the central leadership to replace Prithviraj Chavan with Ashok Chavan, those in Delhi are unsure as to how voters would react to such a move considering his alleged link to the Adarsh housing scam. The high command pacified Maharashtra leaders by assuring that Ashok Chavan would be made the state Congress president and the assembly elections would be fought under his leadership, party sources said.
A Congress minister in the state said appointing Ashok Chavan as state president would allow the party to make decisions on candidates and the strategy to be adopted in the elections. The high command is awaiting the verdict on the paid news case to make the announcement, he said. The Election Commission had named Ashok Chavan among politicians who had inserted favourable news in newspapers, an allegation the former chief minister had vehemently denied.
source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/