NCP to fight in 45 seats in Karnataka: What impact will it have

Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is planning on contesting at least 45 seats in the upcoming Karnataka assembly elections.

The BJP, Congress and JD(S)are locked in a triangular fight in elections which will be held on May 10. The results of the elections will be out on May 13.

Pawar has summoned a meeting of his party leaders in Mumbai on Saturday, following which the final list of candidates will be decided.

"We are meeting in Mumbai on Saturday and will finalise our plans for Karnataka," Pawar said.

Although the NCP does not have any base in Karnataka, the move is still an interesting one in the wake of the developments that took place last week. The NCP had lost its national party status due to its depleted fortunes in Goa, Manipur and Meghalaya.

The NCP had recently written to the Election Commission of India seeking allocation the 'alarm clock' symbol for the Karnataka Assembly elections. The request was acceded by the poll authority. The NCP said that the party is planning to contest on at least 40-45 seats. There are 224 constituencies in Karnataka and the magic number is 113.

The NCP is also planning to extend support to the Maharashtra Ekikarna Samithi, which has a presence in the Belagavi region that borders Maharashtra.

The announcement by the NCP comes a day after Pawar met with Congress chief, Mallikarjuna Kharge and Rahul Gandhi on the need to forge a stronger opposition to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections next year.

Experts tell OneIndia that the move by the NCP is unlikely to have any impact in the state as the party has no presence here. On the question whether it will cut the votes of any party, the expert said that it is unlikely. The battle is a clear one between the BJP, Congress and JD(S) and no other party is expected to make any difference. The announcement by the NCP is more symbolic in nature and it would be interesting to see, what the vote share of the party would be.