Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) must bury the hatchet for polls

Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan has claimed, in an interview to this paper, that in almost every respect, the performance of his state trumps that of Gujarat. He might be correct, in a statistical sense. However, raw data might find itself at odds with voters’ perceptions. Chavan has said, in the same interview, that he was unpleasantly surprised by the results of the Lok Sabha elections. He ought to be. In that poll, Chavan’s party, the Congress, polled 18% of votes and a measly two seats, with many veterans losing their seats. Ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won 16% of votes, but managed to claw back four seats. That left nearly 48% of votes and 41 seats out of a total of 48 with the BJP-Shiv Sena combine. For the Congress-NCP alliance that has ruled India’s most industrialised state for nearly 15 years, this was an epic failure.

Assembly polls are a few months away, but you wouldn’t guess it from the way Congress and NCP are bickering over seats. The NCP claims that it has won more seats than its partner and should get at least an equal share of the 288 seats to contest. The Congress should agree to this. Instead of asking Chavan, a clean but listless chief minister, to lead its campaign, it should ask NCP founder Sharad Pawar to take that role.

Going by the Lok Sabha results, most pundits expect the BJPShiv Sena combine to triumph in the assembly polls. Anti-incumbency has built up over the last 15 years and many local leaders are disgruntled. But the Shiv Sena is also rent by infighting and the local BJP has too many ambitious leaders for its own good. Throw in Raj Thackeray of the MNS with his own chief ministerial ambitions, and the result could go either way. Now, the Congress-NCP must bury internal differences and prepare for polls in earnest.