Congress, NCP announce pre-poll alaince ahead of Gujarat elections

In the pre-election alliance with the Congress for the Gujarat assembly elections set for next month, the NCP will run three candidates.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), led by Sharad Pawar, and the Congress have formed a pre-election alliance in preparation for the impending assembly elections in Gujarat, which will take place next month.

At a joint news conference held by the two parties on Friday in Ahmedabad, it was revealed that the NCP will run three candidates as part of the alliance. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which is now in power, holds these three seats (BJP).

Gujarat has 182 assembly seats, of which the Congress won 77 and the NCP one in the 2017 assembly elections.

“The NCP will fight the upcoming Gujarat elections 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,” said Jagdish Thakor, president of the Gujarat Congress.

“We will make sure that we contest these three seats with honesty. I am thankful for the trust reposed in us by the Congress. We will not do anything that will harm the image of the NCP,” NCP state unit president Jayant Patel Boskey told media persons.

In Gujarat, the NCP and Congress maintained a protracted collaboration. The reelection of the late Ahmed Patel, a crucial party strategist, for the Gujarat Rajya Sabha seat in August 2017 brought to light a breach between the two parties. Congress claimed that the NCP did not support Patel and behaved like a “B-team” of the BJP in a race that was decided by one vote, where Patel prevailed.

Congress and the NCP ran separate campaigns for the Gujarat assembly elections in 2017. Kandhal Jadeja of the NCP was the only candidate for the party to prevail. He is the Porbandar district’s representative for the Kutiyana assembly seat.

Polls in Gujarat will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5, and the counting of votes will take place on December 8.