Deshmukh wants Congress to contest Maharashtra assembly polls alone

Mumbai, May 17 (ANI): Triumphed with his party's success in the Lok Sabha elections, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Sunday said that he wants the Congress party to go alone in the upcoming assembly polls.

"We want to contest assembly elections in Maharashtra without aligning with any other party. We will put up a proposal before the Congress high command to go alone in Maharashtra assembly elections," he told reporters here.

The NCP-Congress coalition government has completed nine years in Maharashtra. eshmukh, who comes with a seven years chief ministerial experience, is a strong supporter of Congress contesting the elections alone.

Deshmukh said Congress party's experiment of contesting polls on its own in Uttar Pradesh under AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's leadership had shown wonderful results.

"We wanted to contest the Lok Sabha elections. We will try to go alone in assembly," he said.

Deshmukh quashed the idea that Congress fared well in the elections due to the division of votes by presence of MNS candidates in the fray.

"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's clean image and the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were instrumental in the success of Congress," he said. (ANI)