There was no question of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) offering support to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the event of a fractured verdict in the upcoming general election, said NCP MP Supriya Sule on Thursday.
Ms. Sule further stated that the NCP would continue its firm opposition to BJP and its divisive policies even after the Lok Sabha election, irrespective of its outcome.
She was responding to questions as to whether the NCP would back the BJP in the event the latter fell short of an absolute majority as it had offered unsolicited support to BJP following the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly election.
Ms. Sule, who is seeking a mandate from the crucial Baramati Lok Sabha constituency for the third time, further remarked that it was unfortunate that candidates were not addressing critical issues facing the State and the country during their respective poll campaigns.
“It is indeed galling that leaders and candidates are not speaking about the drought stalking the State nor have anything to say on the soaring unemployment levels or the failure to secure higher prices for the farmers’ agricultural produce,” said Ms. Sule, speaking in Baramati.
Taking veiled jibes at the BJP governments at the Centre and the State, she said that opposition leaders merely made speeches but never once bothered to visit the drought-afflicted parts of Baramati.
“It is easy to make speeches, but very hard to set up lasting structures to provide drought-relief… During my tenure, I have attempted to raise groundwater levels in my area by carrying out sub-surface mapping and have tried to make Baramati tanker-free,” Ms. Sule said, criticizing the alleged failure of water schemes implemented by the BJP-Sena government in Maharashtra.
Following the Lok Sabha election in 2014, the crumbling of the two polar alliances in Maharashtra, the BJP- Shiv Sena and the Congress-NCP, saw the four parties contesting separately in the Assembly election in October that year.
In the results to the Assembly polls, the BJP had fallen short of an absolute majority and the Sena had vacillated in offering support to its ally.
At the time, Sharad Pawar’s NCP had stepped into the vacuum, offering to support the BJP, allegedly in the interests of a stable government in Maharashtra.