Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, November 12

The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party are under pressure from their cadre to join hands to take on the BJP-Shiv Sena combine in Maharashtra.

Sources in both parties say the defeat of the BJP in Bihar in the face of a “secular” alliance and the good showing of the Congress and the NCP in local body elections in the state had provided a much-needed impetus for an alliance.

The two parties, which broke up on the eve of the Assembly elections in Maharashtra last year, are again coming together in different parts of the state.

“The Congress is open to tying up with the NCP in Kolhapur,” state Congress chief Ashok Chavan said just before the results of the Bihar Assembly polls came in.

The Grand Old Party was in for a pleasant surprise when it did well in the elections to the Gadchiroli and Gondia civic bodies in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region where the BJP had swept the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls. The NCP is showing signs of revival in its stronghold of western Maharashtra where the BJP had tied up with farmers’ outfits such as the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana.

Sources in the NCP say the farming community in the region was upset with the Devendra Fadnavis government for not providing adequate drought relief. Leaders in both Congress and NCP were keen on exploiting the differences between the ruling BJP and Shiv Sena ahead of the elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation due in early 2017. The Congress is working to woo the North Indian community in Mumbai which accounts for nearly 35 per cent of the population. Former Lok Sabha MP Sanjay Nirupam, who heads the Mumbai unit of the Congress, is actively rebuilding its cadre ahead of the BMC poll.

Talks of a rapprochement between the two parties come at a time when the Shiv Sena has reiterated its commitment to aggressive Hindutva in Maharashtra.