Uneasy Cong-NCP alliance too good for SS-BJP combine in Maha

Despite the tag of being an 'uneasy' alliance,the Congress-NCP coalition in Maharashtra proved too good for the Shiv Sena-BJP combine.

Despite the tag of being an uneasy alliance,the Congress-NCP coalition in Maharashtra proved too good for the Shiv Sena-BJP combine,pulling off a hat-trick in the key western state in the first major test of popularity after the Lok Sabha elections.

The states ruling coalition partners entered into an electoral pact after a prolonged stand-off and hard bargaining that continued even after the process of filing of nominations had started,in what many had dubbed as yet another marriage of convenience.

Notwithstanding the durability of the decade-old alliance,bitterness crept in when buoyed by its performance in the Lok Sabha elections a section of the state Congress led by former chief minister and union minister Vilasrao Deshmukh made a strong pitch for going it alone in the Assembly polls.

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The Congress had won 17 of states 48 LS seats against NCPs 08.

Rubbing salt to the wound inflicted by a dismal showing at the hustings,AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh suggested merger of the NCP with Congress due to the commonality of DNA and as the issue of Sonia Gandhis foreign origin,on which Sharad Pawar-led party was born,was no longer relevant.

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