This coincided with Congress-NCP leaders doubling down after the rout in 2014, their voices feeble, their agendas nowhere as scathing as needed, and their coordination appalling. Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, leader of opposition in the assembly, is on the verge of hopping across to the BJP; his son Sujay is a BJP candidate this election. Narayan Rane, a pugnacious street-fighter, distanced himself from the Congress and set up his own outfit. The NCP’s Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil, former minister, was on stage last week with Modi; his exit remains a formality. When the 2019 election was announced, the Congress-NCP was hard put to draw up a list of campaigners. After Rahul Gandhi and Sharad Pawar, the list had virtually no state-level leader.