To silence NCP, Congress makes counter betrayal claim

In the 27 zilla parishad elections held last year, Congress felt NCP betrayed its trust by seeking help from BJP in Gadchiroli, Yavatmal, Nagpur, Chandrapur and Amravati

Maharashtra Congress sought Wednesday to deflate the NCP claim of betrayal in Gujarat by listing instances when the alliance partner ditched it.

MPCC president Manikrao Thakre said, "By now, we are used to NCP charges. We have a long list of cases where NCP blatantly betrayed trust by fielding candidates against us or joining hands with rivals in local politics."

He pointed out that brother of water resources minister Sunil Tatkare contested against the official Congress candidate in a recent election and that despite a pre-poll pact with Congress in Vidarbha civic polls, NCP joined hands with Sena-BJP to gain power.

Earlier, NCP had joined hands BJP in Pune Municipal Corporation to clip Congress wings. The BJP-NCP alliance is popularly known as Pune pattern.

In the 27 zilla parishad elections held last year, Congress felt NCP betrayed its trust by seeking help from BJP in Gadchiroli, Yavatmal, Nagpur, Chandrapur and Amravati.

Congress and NCP were supposed to contest the elections together. But at the last minute NCP state leaders allowed local units to join rivals to corner Congress.

Congress claimed NCP had a tacit understanding with its rivals even in the 2009 state assembly and parliamentary elections.

The party listed six instances in 2009 assembly and four in parliamentary elections where NCP non-cooperation caused defeat of its candidates.

"We have maintained we will not go with communal forces. In Maharashtra, we have maintained the coalition and stuck to our word. We are only showing their (NCP) mistakes," said Thakre.

NCP leaders have been attacking Congress for the past week, blaming it for its in Gujarat elections.

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