All's not well with Cong-NCP pact

The first ever pre-poll alliance between the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is not without its share of uneasiness and confrontations.

The main reason being that the decision to share seats means that for the first time in Maharashtra, the Congress symbol will only be seen in 164 constituencies.

If in Satara, the Congress is angry that it was ceded only one seat out of nine in the district, in Mumbai, it is the NCP which is, with just seven seats out of 34 seeing seething resentment in its ranks.

Minister of State in the Prime Ministers Office Prithviraj Chavan has been roped in to mollify disgruntled elements in the Congress in Satara as he hails from the district.

According to sources, top Congress leaders in the state are also angry that so much ground has been ceded to Sharad Pawar in this crucial western Maharashtra, which would net some sure shot seats for the party.

"While it is true that we have been compensated through Mumbai, it is also true that winning in the sugar bowl will net crucial economic support as well as the support of the powerful sugar lobby," said a senior Congress minister from the state.

Reports of frustrated NCP candidates working against the local Congress candidate have been making the rounds in Mumbai as well, cracking the surface of the alliance between the two parties.

According to sources in the Congress, NCP workers are giving a hard time to Congress candidate Madhu Chavan in Chinchpokli. Chavan is already facing a very tough fight against underworld don Arun Gawli who is determined to win against all odds.

"A few NCP workers had asked their party high command that Chinchpokli be kept with NCP, but the party wanted a larger chunk of Satara and bartered away the Mumbai seats," said a Congress worker.

In Worli the situation is the other way round with NCP candidate Kudatarkar Vijay Bhau is facing a lot of resentment from the Congress camp. The Shiv Sena candidate in the area, Dattaji Nalawade fancies his chances after this.

"I feel that the Congress-NCP pre-poll alliance will bomb on them as they will not be able to control the aspirations of their partymen," said Nalawade.

While the two parties in the alliance are finding the going tough, the cold war between Maratha Strongman Sharad Pawar and his former supporter Chaggan Bhujhbal is creating problems for Bhujbal's nephew Pankaj Chagan Bhujhbal.

"There is an active attempt to sideline Bhujhbal by Sharad Pawar as it is perceived that he has grown too big for his boots, therefore efforst are on to wreck Pankaj's chances, the NCP worker is just not helping him," said a senior NCP party functionary.

Bhujhbal has shown his defiance by refusing to attend the joint rally held by Sharad Pawar and Sonia Gandhi in Vidarbha on Tuesday.

The pre-poll alliance of the Congress and the NCP has a long way to go before becoming a cohesive alliance.

With the top leadership of the parties openly distrustful of each other, it is no woinder that party workers of both parties are against each other. Add to it the constraints of alliance politics, and you have a deadly cocktail of rebellion and subversion. Just how far this will affect the election result will be seen only on October 16.