Gandhi's visit to Maharashtra yesterday was the first after the Lok Sabha elections in which Congress secured 17 seats in the state, but its alliance partner NCP got only 8 seats. Maharashtra has a total of 48 Lok Sabha seats. Gandhi has already started consultations with party leaders on the issue and recently had meetings with Deshmukh and Sushilkumar Shinde, who is also a former Chief Minister.

Sangma, who heads the strategic committee formed by Pawar for the coming assembly elections, has said "The consensus of the rank and file of the party is that we should continue the alliance with Congress." NCP leaders have been contending that an alliance with Congress was necessary as the Shiv Sena-BJP combine would benefit if Congress and NCP contested the poll separately.

Besides, they say that if the alliance continued at the Centre and not in Maharashtra, it would send a wrong message.