A few days after the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) set aside their differences in Maharashtra to make corruption a common plank against the Devendra Fadnavis -led BJP government in the just-concluded monsoon session of the State legislature, the NCP — that had attended earlier such gatherings — boycotted a meeting of Opposition parties, chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi here on Friday.
Not surprisingly, the question being asked in political circles is: will the Sharad Pawar-led NCP go the way of the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U)?
Big brother attitude
A senior NCP leader told The Hindu : “It’s true we are not happy with the Congress’s big brother attitude. It calls us only in adversity and otherwise ignores us. On Friday, we didn’t attend the meeting to show that we are unhappy with the Congress.”
So is the NCP edging towards the BJP-led NDA?
“There is no question of going to the NDA camp: we are with the Opposition, and we would like to contest future elections in Gujarat and Maharashtra in alliance with the Congress… provided they are sensible about seat sharing,” the NCP leader said. He pointed out, for instance, that any future seat sharing in Maharashtra would have to be on the basis of current strengths in that State: the Congress has two Lok Sabha seats, and 42 Assembly seats; the NCP has four LS seats and 41 Assembly seats. In Gujarat, of course, the Congress strength is much larger than that of the NCP.
Indeed, the Congress, with its own depleted numbers since 2014, has to tread carefully to ensure that the NCP’s instinct to stay with the Opposition is not dulled.
After the Friday meeting, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said Mr. Pawar had told him he would not be able to attend as he was unwell. It’s time the Congress — if it wishes to maintain its leadership position in the Opposition — assuaged the NCP’s feelings, and bridged the trust deficit.
