The rift has once again grown between the two ruling parties in the state — the Congress and the NCP — this time over the zila parishad presidential elections.
Although the Congress is the larger party with wins in 12 districts against the NCP’s eight, it managed to get only seven zila parishad president posts. The NCP, however, formed post-poll understandings with other parties to grab 13 of the top posts, a fact that top MPCC leaders could not digest.
“We got 142 elected in all seven districts, better than last time’s 132. On the other hand, the NCP has come down to 72 from last year’s 82. As decided in the coordination committee meet, we should have had more zilla parishad presidents, but the NCP did not follow the ethics of alliance,” MPCC president Manikrao Thakre alleged.
The Congress leader also alleged that the day before the elections, NCP leaders had even not attended any phone calls from the Congress, proving that it was a “well hatched conspiracy”. “We did not want to object to their decision, but if they don’t accept their fault, people will teach them a lesson in the elections,” Mr Thakre said.
The NCP put the blame on the Congress, saying the alliance’s big brother had broken the “ethics of alliance”. While declaring that his party was celebrating that they had presidents in 13 zila parishads and deputy presidents at 14 zilla parishads, NCP state president Madhukar Pichad said the Congress had formed alliance with Raju Shetty’s Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghtan. “The Congress had initially said that there was no need for a discussion as with the NCP’s help, they would have a Congress president in Kolhapur. But they rejected us and formed an alliance with someone who had slandered our party president Sharad Pawar, and we could not take it lying down,” Mr Pichad asked.