Congress-NCP alliance more cohesive ahead of polls: Chavan

Nagpur, April 7: The Congress-NCP tie-up in Maharashtra for last 15 years has struck the best ever co-ordination during Lok Sabha polls and it may help the alliance shore up its tally this elections, state Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has said.

"The 2014 Lok Sabha election has probably brought both NCP and Congress much closer with the determination to increase its (alliance) overall tally in Maharashtra," Chavan told PTI here last night.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar has spared maximum time for the joint campaign and has mounted sharp attack on the BJP-led Opposition and particularly against BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.

He has repeatedly been telling how Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was allegedly burnt to death during the 2002 Gujarat riots, the senior Congress leader said. Asserting that there was no "Modi wave," he said, "I have been touring the entire Vidarbha region but have not experienced this."

"While campaigning till now, I found the enthusiasm among Congress workers perceptibly high. In fact, in seats like Nagpur, Akola where we were slow to pick up, there is a marked improvement," he said.

"Consolidation of our traditional votes has now taken place, giving us confidence of victory in Vidarbha and we will win more than five seats this time along with NCP," Chavan expressed.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi's election meeting in the city recently has again boosted the morale of the party workers. The campaign has picked up and the party will add to our 2009 tally of four seats in Vidarbha and also in the state, he said.

For the April 10 first phase Lok Sabha polling in Vidarbha region of the state, the chief minister has covered almost all the constituencies. Defending the nomination of former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, one of the accused in the Adarsh scam, from Nanded, he claimed it (nomination) was purely on technical grounds as "the former CM has not been debarred by any court of law from contesting the election."

Even the CBI intends to drop charges against him in the Adarsh housing society matter, he said, adding that he will even go to campaign for Ashok Chavan for the Lok Sabha elections.

PTI