NCP to contest assembly polls with Congress: Pawar

KOLHAPUR: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar said on Friday that the party will be contesting the upcoming state assembly elections along with the Congress. Pawar rubbished rumours of contesting the elections separately and keeping the option of forming an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party after the declaration of Lok Sabha election results.

Pawar was in Satara to attend the annual meeting of Rayat Shikshan Samstha, which he has been heading since the last two decades.

"The state government is going to face a challenging situation in the coming days as the model code of conduct will come into effect for the legislative council elections. Once it's over, the state will again face assembly elections. It is difficult to say how much time the state would get to take crucial decisions on local body tax, relaxation in value added tax, reservation for Maratha community and release of funds for development-related works," he said.

He said that irrespective of the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections, the NCP will the contest assembly elections with the Congress.

In 2009, NCP had won only nine Lok Sabha seats. However, Pawar succeeded in holding on to his post. Pawar's close aide Praful Patel was Union aviation minister between 2004 and 2009, but he had to step down during the UPA's next term.

The state government had received a major blow when former chief minister Ashok Chavan was allegedly involved in the controversial Adarsh society scam. The top brass of the Congress then appointed Prithviraj Chavan as the chief minister. Even as Pawar has expressed disappointment over Chavan's functioning, the Congress and its top brass has continued to support the chief minister.