Pawar meets party brass to discuss post-poll scene

Mumbai, May 10: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar today held a meeting of his party leaders to review NCP's performance in the Lok Sabha polls and the likely situation after the May 16 results.

Senior NCP ministers, including Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, attended the meeting. It was held at Deputy Chief Minister's official residence Devgiri in south Mumbai.

"The meeting discussed issues like the impact of social media in these elections and also voting pattern in the 21 Lok Sabha constituencies NCP contested in Maharashtra. Cooperation extended by ally Congress was also discussed at the meeting," a senior NCP minister told PTI after the meeting.

"There was a general discussion on the political situation in the state ahead of the Asembly elections scheduled this year," the minister said. On the subject of help extended by Congress, the issue of non-cooperation by Congress MLA Ramprasad Bordikar in Parbhani seat was discussed, he said.

The Jintur MLA was served a show-cause notice by MPCC after NCP complained that he was not helping latter's candidate Vijay Bhamble in Parbhani. Bhamble had contested the 2009 Assembly election against Bordikar as an independent.

Pawar wants the NCP to gear up for the state assembly elections immediately after the Lok Sabha results are out, the minister said. Those who attended the meeting included state NCP president Bhaskar Jadhav, Assembly Speaker Dilip Walse Patil, and ministers Chhagan Bhujbal, Ajit Pawar, R R Patil, Ganesh Naik, Rajesh Tope, Sunil Tatkare, Fauzia Khan, Anil Deshmukh and Jaidutt Kshirsagar.

PTI