Page 36 - 31JAN2018E

With eyes set on power,

foes become friends

Political parties are forging may possibly contest on 20 seats each. Shiv Sena-BJP
alliances ahead of 2019 general The remaining eight seats will be allot- The two parties ended their 15-year-old
alliance before the Assembly polls that
ted to others allies,” NCP leader Praful
elections to walk together as Patel told. The alliance that aims to year, in which the Congress won 42 and
road gets tougher for all the defeat the BJP and Shiv Sena, how- NCP 41 out of the total 288 seats. The
contestants amid unclear public ever, has no room for the Maharashtra break-up translated into massive gains
Navnirman Sena (MNS). In 2014, the
for the Shiv Sena and the BJP which
mood, writes Bharat hiteShi Congress had contested 26 seats and came together to form a government.
the NCP fought on 21. The last seat went The two parties have since maintained
ational and regional par- to a smaller alliance partner. While the an understanding of sorts in local body
ties have started search- NCP won four seats, the Congress man- and MLC polls in Maharashtra. For the
ing for friends and allies aged to get only two. upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the NCP,
ahead of the 2019 general
N elections, which is expect-
ed to be a unique election witnessing
Modi versus the rest contests. Alarmed
Congress staging a comeback in three
major Hindi speaking states of Madhya
Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhatisgarh,
the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) has
shown alacrity and forged an alliance
in Bihar with Nitish Kumar and Ram
Vilas Paswan.
While Bihar saw known NDA
allies joining hands, in Maharashtra,
after their dismal performance as
allies in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections,
the Congress and the Nationalist Con-
gress Party (NCP) that parted ways
and contested the assembly elections
separately have decided to sew their
alliance back. Top leaders of the parties
have held several rounds of discussions
and even though there has been no of-
ficial announcement yet, both Congress
and Sharad Pawar-led NCP are likely to
contest an equal number of seats out of
the 48 in the state. They are also reach-
ing out to other “like-minded” parties
for a grand alliance.
“Of the total 48 Lok Sabha seats in
Maharashtra, both NCP and Congress

• Friends again BJP has allied in Bihar with
Nitish Kumar and Ram Vilas Paswan