National Congress Party (NCP) President Sharad Pawar gave a setback to the Congress party on Thursday, declaring that his party will contest on all 26 seats in Gujarat in Lok Sabha (LS) elections after the alliance with Congress failed.
On March 25, a similar statement was made by NCP Gujarat President Jayant Boski, who claimed that his party might contest on all LS seats.
NCP will go ahead and announce the candidate for the election later in the day.
Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi on the NCP’s decision said, “NCP is not serious for Lok Sabha elections. It needs to be strong in the state first. In Gujarat, they are a B team for BJP”. The alliance broke out because NCP was asking for more seats than it should contest on, said a Congress leader.
In Maharashtra, Congress and NCP are contesting in an alliance with the two parties agreeing to contest 26 and 22 seats respectively
The NCP has been contesting polls in Gujarat in alliance with Congress since long. In 2007 and 2012, the NCP and the Congress have fought the State election and the parliamentary elections in an alliance.
The alliance seemed to be not working because the Former state minister CM Shankersinh Vaghela was inducted into the NCP. In 2017 the congress leader Mr Vaghela had voted against Congress candidate Ahmed Patel in the Rajya Sabha.
On January 29, 2019, the former state Chief Minister Vaghela was inducted in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and was appointed as the general secretary of the party in the presence of NCP president Sharad Pawar, other NCP leaders, and Praful Patel.
The developments on Vaghela joining the NCP have been since 2004. However, he won the Lok Sabha election on a Congress ticket in 2004 and became the Union Textile Minister in UPA government led by Manmohan Singh.
In 2007 assembly elections when the NCP and Congress alliance didn’t work out, NCP fielded 58 candidates and won on the Kutiyana seat. The break in the alliance had Congress loose five assembly seats- Prantij, Dholka, Umreth, Fatehpara, and Dangs.
The 26 constituencies of Gujarat will have assembly polls in the 3rd phase of elections on April 23. While Maharashtra will vote in the fourth phase of elections. The polling dates for Maharashtra are April 11, 18, 23, and 29.