Pawar’s bid for secular Maha front gets boost

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, December 11

NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s attempts to cobble up a secular coalition in Maharashtra ahead of next year’s LS polls is expected to get a boost following the BJP’s poor showing in the five-state elections.

Sources said Pawar has already got the Congress and Left parties apart from smaller outfits on board and the seat-sharing talks between them have almost been completed. Leaving nothing to chance, the Maratha supremo has even got his former bête noire Raju Shetti of the Swabhimani Shetkari Paksh, a farmers’ outfit, to dump the NDA and join the new front.

The only sour note in the seat-sharing talks between the Congress and NCP happens to be Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. While Pawar is said to be pitching for the MNS, the Congress is worried about its impact on voters in North India. The anti-BJP front received a major boost last month when Pawar and senior Congress leaders shared the dais with CPM leaders during a rally organised by the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS).

At the rally, Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan worked out the mathematics behind the BJP’s win in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. “The BJP could form the government with just 30 per cent of the popular vote because the remaining 70 per cent of the votes were divided. We will ensure that the other 70 per cent of the votes will not be divided this time,” Chavan said.