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Congress-NCP alliance collapses in Gujarat

Manas Dasgupta

AHMEDABAD: The electoral understanding between the Congress and the Nationalist Congress party has collapsed in Gujarat following disagreement over seat-sharing, NCP state unit president Jayant Patel said here on Saturday.

He alleged that the Congress never ever bothered to hold even discussions over the issue and unilaterally declared its candidates for the seats demanded by the NCP.

The NCP had asked for at least three seats —Rajkot, Ahmedabad (west) and Surat — but the Congress had already announced its candidates for the first two leaving only Surat for the NCP. Even this decision was causing turmoil in the Congress rank and file and its workers were unlikely to support the NCP candidate even if the Congress would not contest Surat seat.

Mr. Patel said the NCP had decided to contest all 26 seats in the State on its own and announced the first list of eight candidates. The candidates for the remaining seats would be finalised soon.

Congress spokesman Arjun Modhvadia said it was an unfortunate development considering that the NCP was an alliance partner at the national level , but he did not think that it could make any substantial difference in the outcome of the elections. He believed that the situation could still be salvaged by the national leaders of both the parties. The Congress initially had agreed to leave Rajkot for the NCP but later it announced its candidates for both Rajkot and Ahmedabad (West). It has so far not named any candidate for Surat. seat.

LJP to contest all seats

The Lok Jan Shakti Party led by Ram Vilas Paswan also announced on Saturday that it would contest all the 26 seats. in the State on its own. The party announced names of candidates for five seats. Also joining the fray is the All India Minorities Front, which said it would put up its candidates for eight seats. The Front announced its candidates for two seats, including Gandhinagar, from where BJP’s prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani would be contesting.

Meanwhile, 35 nominations were filed on Saturday, including the official candidates of both the Congress and the BJP. Among those who filed the papers was the former Union Minister, Harin Pathak , who would contest from Ahmedabad (East) on the BJP ticket.

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