Karnataka assembly polls: Sharad Pawar’s NCP plans to contest 40-50 seats

BENGALURU: Sharad Pawar led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is planning to contest 40 to 50 seats in the May 10 assembly elections in Karnataka.
The move is seen as an attempt by the Maharashtrabased outfit to regain its national party status which it had to forfeit due to depleted political fortunes in states such as Goa, Meghalaya, and Manipur.
Sources say NCP plans to field candidates where BJP, Congress, and JD(S) are locked in a triangular contest. Pawar has convened a meeting of senior party functionaries in Mumbai on Saturday to finalise plans and decide on the exact number of candidates to field. It comes hot on the heels of a meeting between Pawar, AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi on the need to forge opposition unity to take on BJP in the Lok Sabha elections next year.
NCP functionaries said they also plan to extend support to Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti, especially in north Karnataka constituencies that have a sizeable Marathi-speaking population.
This is not the first time NCP is trying its luck in Karnataka. It fared poorly in its past forays. In 2014, it contested 14 seats and polled a mere 10,465 votes while in 2013, it fielded candidates in 24 seats and secured a total of 18,886 votes.
NCP had written to the Election Commission of India to allocate it the alarm clock symbol for assembly elections, a request that was granted by the poll authority