New Delhi: NCP, a constituent of the UPA, on Saturday squarely blamed the "rug pulling activities" of Congress for its poor show in the Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra as
also Goa and Bihar.
"In Maharashtra, where we won eight seats, lost five
seats including two sitting seats because of the rug pulling
activities of our partner. The experience in Goa and Bihar had
also not been different," the party said in a draft resolution
to be placed before its national convention tomorrow.
Noting that the party had fought the Lok Sabha elections
in the three states in alliance with Congress and in about a
dozen states on its own, it felt that the alliance politics
also did not give it good dividend.
It also said that in the dozen states it contested
without aligning with anybody, it could win only one seat and
that is from Meghalaya.
"This shows that whether we fight independently or in
alliance, winning the seats depends upon the organisational
strength and popular support of our party leaders," it said
underlining the need to expand the party's base.
Asked about the party's message to Congress in UPA-II,
party general secretary D P Tripathi, who had during UPA-I
maintained that coalition does not mean "fiefdom" of any
party, said "our message to Congress is political
togetherness." He said "NCP is there to emerge and not merge"
when asked whether the party could merge with Congress in
future.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, December 19, 2009, 20:48