Maharashtra Cong jittery over Sena-NCP closeness

The state Congress is getting nervous over the increasing closeness between the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Shiv Sena, and has decided to send a "status report" to the party high command.

The state unit has a long list of grudges against the NCP but the recent developments in the election to the state legislative council and in the mayoral elections of the Mira-Bhyander Municipal Corporation, a satellite town of Mumbai, has made it jittery.

Despite having an understanding that the party holding the post of MLA, MP or MLC in a particular constituency will field its candidate in case of an election or by-election there, an NCP-sponsored Independent candidate helped the Sena candidate win the election for the post of MLC from the Aurangabad-Jalna local self-government constituency.

Again, despite the Congress emerging as a single largest party, the NCP "conspired" with Sena, BJP and independents to deny the Congress the post of mayor and deputy mayor.

"All these are the indications of things to come," said a senior Congress leader from the state.

"And these recent developments are not isolated. There is a definite pattern. In the Shrivardhan Assembly by-election, the local NCP leaders actively supported the Sena candidate. In the Pune and Amravati municipal corporations, NCP shares power with Sena. During the by-election for the Ramtek Lok Sabha seat, again the NCP men teamed up with Sena," he claimed, adding the party high command should take notice of these developments and accordingly work out a strategy for the 2009 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

However, despite repeated demands from many senior party leaders, state party president Prabha Rau has so far not called a meeting to discuss the issue threadbare and come up with a plan of action.

And at the central level, since the UPA is going through a tough phase, nobody wants to upset the NCP chief and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, he said.

The party's state unit spokesman, Anant Gadgil, said the unit had taken a serious note of the recent developments and Rau would be apprising the party high command on this issue very soon.