Cong may let district units decide on election tie-ups

MUMBAI: The crucial issue of the Congress going it alone in the zilla parishad, municipal council and corporation elections was discussed at a meeting attended by Union minister Sushilkumar Shinde, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and former chief minister Ashok Chavan at the Y B Chavan Centre.
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) also held a meeting of stalwarts at deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s residence on Tuesday to take stock of the situation.
The Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) may authorize district units to decide whether to have pre-poll alliances with the NCP or not.
The MPCC will launch a year-long mass contact programme to woo youth and women in Maharashtra to prepare the party for the mini-general elections in the state. All-India Congress Committee general secretary Mohan Prakash emphasized the need for strengthening the party’s support base in the state, where the Congress leads a coalition government.
The idea behind launching the mass contact programme in the state is to prepare the Congress to fight the elections without any alliance with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP.
At the Congress meeting, Prakash appealed to members to help restore the organization’s glory in the state. The chief minister stressed the role of party activists in view of the local body
elections.
MPCC chief Manikrao Thakre and Union ministers Sushilkumar Shinde and Gurudas Kamat also addressed the meeting, while Rajanitai Patil proposed a resolution thanking party chief Sonia Gandhi for guiding the chief minister on the issue of 50% reservation for women in local bodies.