Congress-NCP alliance to include anti-BJP parties

Mumbai: An important meeting between Congress and Nationalist Congress party leaders took place in Mumbai on Tuesday. All the senior leaders of both parties were present for the meeting, as they discussed about alliance between both parties.

In the Tuesday meeting, it was decided that no one would ask for the number of seats more than its strength and both parties will try to accommodate as many as smaller like-minded parties together in the pre-poll alliance.

In the meeting held at the opposition leader Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil's bungalow, Congr-ess leaders Sushilkumar Shinde, Ashok Chavan, Sanjay Nirupam, Manik-rao Thakare and from NCP leaders Chhagan Bhujbal, Ajit Pawar, Jayant Patil, Jitendra Avhad, Sunil Tatkare, Anil Deshmukh and others were present.

“Our battle with BJP and Shiv Sena is not the battle for power. It is an ideological battle. So, we have decided to form a grand alliance in state. Opposition leaders in both houses Bolne Patil and Dhananjay Munde will initiate talks with smaller parties and then we will see how arrangements over alliance could be done in coming days,” informed Ashok Chavan, state Congress president.

NCP chief Jayant Patil said that both the parties are trying to avoid division of secular votes. “This election is crucial for Indian democracy and we all know that. So we will fight with fascist model using all possible means,” he said.

The alliance talks with smaller parties will be initiated just after Ganesh Visarjan, on September 23. Both Congresses are looking to seal deal with Peasant and Workers Party, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Vikas Aghadi, Communists parties,l and smaller groups of Republican leaders.