In run-up to assembly elections, Congress, NCP enter into pre-poll alliance in Gujarat

New Delhi: Ahead of the upcoming assembly polls in Gujarat next month, the state unit of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have entered into a pre-poll alliance aiming to wrest power from the ruling BJP in the state, top leaders of both opposition parties announced on Friday.

As part of the agreement, Sharad Pawar’s NCP will contest three of the total number of seats in the state. The three seats are currently held by ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators.

“NCP will fight the upcoming assembly polls in the state in alliance with the Congress. The NCP will contest three seats that of — Umreth (Anand district), Naroda (Ahmedabad) and Devgadh Baria (Dahod district) as part of the deal,” Gujarat Congress president Jagdish Thakor said at a news briefing.

The Gujarat assembly elections this year are a three-cornered contest in most constituencies with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) eyeing a significant portion of the vote-share and exuding confidence of being able to wrest power from the ruling BJP. The AAP, fresh from a sweeping victory in Punjab in March 2022 where it decimated the Congress is now looking at capturing power in Gujarat to further its claim to a ‘national party’ status. The BJP, on the other hand is contesting to retain power in the state, the home turf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, where it has ruled for nearly three decades.

In the 2017 assembly elections, the Congress and the NCP had contested the Gujarat polls separately and also did not see eye to eye in the 2019 Lok Sabha general elections. NCP’s Kandhal Jadeja was the only MLA to win from the party in 2017. He represents the Kutiyana Assembly seat in Porbandar district of Gujarat.

“The Congress has decided to forge an alliance with those parties that were with us in UPA-1 and 2 at the national level,” Thakor said expressing confidence that the Congress will return to power in the state by winning an estimated 125 seats in the total 182-member assembly.

NCP’s state unit president Jayant Patel Boskey referring to the alliance said the Sharad Pawar-led party will support Congress in the upcoming election to maximize the anti-BJP votes, which is likely to bear the brunt of anti-incumbency having ruled the western state for a number of years now.

“We will make sure that we contest these three seats with honesty. We will not do anything that will harm the image of the NCP,” the Gujarat NCP chief said.

Assembly elections in BJP-led Gujarat will be held in two phases, the Election Commission of India announced earlier– on 1 and 5 December. The counting of votes to choose the new assembly will be held on 8 December.

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