The opposition parties in Maharashtra have started preparations for the Maharashtra Assembly Election which is going to be held in October 2019. The Congress-National Congress Party (NCP) alliance conducted a joint meeting on Tuesday to plan out the preparations to challenge BJP in the upcoming State elections. The meeting also reviewed the reasons behind poor performance of the alliance in Lok Sabha Polls 2019. The Congress-NCP alliance won only six Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra out of total 48 seats.
The alliance is also hopeful of Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) joining their alliance. “Though we have officially decided to make an attempt, we are not hopeful about the alliance as Ambedkar is predetermined about damaging Congress-NCP. We were open about his demands but he kept changing them every time during our 13 meetings with them,” Hindustan Times quoted an NCP leader as saying. Congress state unit chief Ashok Chavan said, “I am not sure about what Ambedkar wishes, but we are open for talks with the front.’’
Talks over inducting Raj Thackeray led-Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) into the alliance was also discussed during the meeting, but the leaders remained divided over the matter. Earlier on Monday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis also convened a meeting of State government officials to assess the situation of ongoing infrastructure projects in Maharashtra. He directed officials to speed up the pending process for implementation of some projects.