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We will get a majority: Alva

By Arunkumar Bhatt

Margaret Alva

MUMBAI, OCT. 2. "Our feedback is very positive and our estimate is that we will get a clear majority in Maharashtra though our campaign was launched just today," the AICC general secretary, Margaret Alva, told The Hindu here today. However, she did not elaborate on the number of seats the Congress and its principal ally, the Nationalist Congress Party, expected to bag in the coming elections.

Even though both parties are facing the problem of rebels, Ms. Alva said she had received positive feedback from the observers posted in each district of the State.

In an interview, Ms. Alva, who is in charge of her party's election campaign, said: "Our campaign is focussed on the theme of communal harmony and pays special attention to the weaker sections. We had to find an appropriate slogan that would suit all our allies and their constituencies. And so our campaign slogan is: Let us move forward together."

The first hurdle for the alliance was seat-sharing. "We resolved it amicably — 124 seats for the NCP and its allies, and 164 seats for the Congress and our allies. We are contesting 157 seats. We had to impress upon our rank and file that we had to share the seats. In fact, my first job was to make them accept the alliance. The point that Ms. Sonia Gandhi had made such a big sacrifice went home and the party men got ready to leave seats for the NCP and others," she said.

Ms. Alva agreed that Vidarbha, which inclined towards the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party combine in the last Lok Sabha elections, would be the prime battlefield.

"And we are going to win in a big way in Vidarbha as well as in Mumbai."

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