The NCP, he said, was the sole inheritor of the Congress mantle of the largest opposition party in the state. ``Over 90 per cent of Congress workers have joined us,'' he claimed in an informal meeting with journalists at The Indian Express office, Lalbaug.

He denied that the NCP would be a nuisance factor in three-cornered contests involving Sena-BJP and Congress candidates. ``The fight is between the NCP and the Sena-BJP, its the Congress (I) which is the nuisance factor,'' he added.

In Mumbai city alone, the NCP would garner a substantial portion of the Dalit and Muslim vote thanks to its alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Ramdas Athavale's Republican Party of India (RPI), he said.

He dismissed as rumours, talk of an NCP alliance with the BJP after the assemblyelections. There was no question of an alliance with the BJP, and this was the work of certain BJP leaders who were aiming at confusing the electorate, he said.

The NCP had decided not to field their leader Chhagan Bhujbal in the assembly poll fray as he was their main campaigner after Sharad Pawar, Ahir said.

Ahir, who is also the president of the Rashtriya Mill Mazdoor Sangh (RMMS), faces sitting BJP MLA and State Higher and Technical Education Minister Datta Rane in the Sewree assembly constituency.

One of the NCP's main poll planks will be to highlight the failure of the Sena-BJP government in the state and encouraging bhook, bhay and bhrashtachar (hunger, fear and corruption).

``They have failed to deliver any of their election promises, from the one rupee zunka bhakar to free housing for slum dwellers,'' he said. The state government had borrowed over Rs 1000 crore to build flyovers in the city, money which could have been used to build houses for slum dwellers, Ahirsaid.