Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar’s soaring ambitions and the Congress leadership’s less than enthusiastic outlook on its utility are pushing the alliance between the two parties to the brink of collapse, multiple sources in the Congress familiar with the developments have told The Hindu .
“The fact is that the Congress, the NCP, the Shiv Sena and the BJP think that contesting alone would be beneficial. If the BJP-Sena alliance remains intact in the end, there could be a sudden turnaround in the situation, but as of today [Monday] a split with the NCP is a likely scenario,” a Congress source said. He said each party is trying to read the behaviour of the other three parties, with the Congress taking a rather passive interest.
Another party source said both partners were preparing for a life without the other, for the last year or so. “Ajit Pawar [Deputy Chief Minister and the nephew of NCP chief Sharad Pawar] is determined to take a gamble and go alone. He has identified his candidates long ago. After the NCP did better than us in the Lok Sabha election, things have only worsened,” he said.
The Congress won two and the NCP six of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the State. Congress leaders including Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan also believe that contesting separately would be better for the party.
The senior Pawar has been in touch with BJP interlocutors and is open to have a post-poll alliance with the saffron party, according to the Congress understanding of the situation.
“He could return to us also after the election, if that adds up to a majority. But as of now, nobody is particularly worried about saving the alliance,” one Congress source said, pointing out that neither party president Sonia Gandhi nor vice-president Rahul Gandhi has taken any particular interest in ending the impasse.
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