For Gujarat Assembly elections, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) formed a pre-election alliance, as part of which the Sharad Pawar-led party will run for three of the state’s 182 seats. The announcement was made here on Friday. In the 2017 Assembly elections, the two parties contested the Gujarat elections separately. NCP’s Kandhal Jadeja was the only MLA to win from the party. He represents the Kutiyana Assembly seat in the Porbandar district
Announcing the alliance, Gujarat Congress president Jagdish Thakor said, “NCP will fight the upcoming assembly polls in the state in alliance with the Congress.” “The NCP will contest three seats – Umreth (Anand district), Naroda (Ahmedabad), and Devgadh Baria (Dahod district) as part of the alliance.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) holds these three seats.
“The Congress has decided to ally with those parties that were with us in UPA-1 and 2 at the national level,” Thakor added, expressing confidence that the grand old party would return to power in the state by winning 125 seats. He said that those who share the same ideology and are working to save the Constitution, as well as the unity of the country, are coming together to fight fascist forces, and this alliance is a part of that.
NCP’s state unit president, Jayant Patel Boskey, said the NCP would support Congress in fighting the Gujarat Assembly election. He stated that “We will make sure that we contest these three seats with honesty.” I am thankful for the trust reposed in us by Congress. We will not do anything that will harm the image of the NCP,”
Thakor said there is a possibility that NCP workers would demand more seats, but as per the alliance, the party will contest only three seats. Gujarat elections will be held in two phases, on December 1 and 5, with vote counting starting on December 8.
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