The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is adamant on its stand to contest 22 seats out of 48 parliamentary seats in Maharashtra. On the other hand, the Congress has been favouring 29:19 seat sharing formula in the Lok Sabha election as NCP had performed badly in the last election especially in western Maharashtra. However, the NCP is unwilling it accept this decision and has already announced to contest 22 seats in the state. The NCP is ready to swap few seats with its ally. Both the parties have been involved in a tug of war with each one of them trying to outdo the other. Often NCP has criticised Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan for making slow-paced decision which resulted into policy paralysis in the state. The party will soon finalise the seat sharing agreement with Congress. It aims to win 12 to 15 seats by contesting 22 seats in the Lok Sabha election.

NCP spokeperson Nawab Malik said the Congress performance has weakened after the assembly election. He said, “The Congress party has been routed out of the power in four states in the recently concluded assembly election. The seat sharing decision will be taken by our party president Sharad Pawar. We will fight election in 22 seats in the state. There is a possibility that Aam Aadmi Party will give a tough fight to Congress in the state.”

Earlier, Maharashtra Congress chief Manikrao Thakre had said that that seat-sharing 2009 formula was based on the 2004 poll results. He also added that since Congress has improved its performance in the 2009 election the party deserved three more seats.

NCP, which is number two after the Congress party in the local self government and top in the civic bodies, is quite keen to improve its tally from eight which it won in 2009 elections. NCP state president Bhaskar Jadhav said all efforts will be made to increase party’s tally.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has taken a decision to field new faces including youths, professionals, women in addition to ministers in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections to take on AAP and also the saffron BJP-Shiv Sena alliance.

Further, NCP chief and union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar exhorted party members to learn and effectively use social media including face book, tweeter, whatsapp in a serious bid to reach out a large number of voters especially youths.

He indicated that NCP would approach voters purely on development plank. Pawar reiterated that he won’t contest ensuing Lok Sabha elections but enter into the Rajya Sabha.

Nationalist Congress Party leader Praful Patel said that the party chief Sharad Pawar will not contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections due in the second quarter of this year.

Ever since Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) formed government in Delhi the common man, businessman, NGOs and even cobblers too are keen to join the party. AAP party activists are appealing to the people to join the party and have started registering new members by erecting stalls outside railway stations and many other public places. Many persons registered their names at Bandra railway station where new member registrations were held. Even the online registration too is picking at a faster pace. AAP has claimed that the enrolment of new members in the party has increased tenfold. Donations are pouring in and volunteers are lining up to join the party.

Today people are already fed up with rising corruption and inflation which is surging day by day and they are desperately seeking for a change in governance. People are upset with the ruling party as they have been running the government in an old-fashioned manner where decisions are taken by few leaders through closed-door meetings.

Preeti Sharma Menon, Secretary of Aam Aadmi Party, Maharashtra said, “Everyone is joining our party irrespective of their financial background. Recently the shoe the cobbler’s association had joined our party. We have erected stall and are inviting people to join AAP.”

Shirish Ashiyani, a student of Thodamal Engineering College, Bandra said, “I am really impressed with the mode of functioning adopted by the Aam Aadmi party. Hence I am joining them with an aim to eliminate corruption from the society.”

The manner in which things are changing only goes to show that people wouldn’t take bad governance any longer. Arvind Kejriwal’s popularity too has risen after his party formed government at Delhi. People appreciated the decision taken by him to lower electricity tariffs and provide drinking water. This now poses an immediate challenge to mainstream parties in the upcoming Lok sabha elections. Congress and BJP are already watching the governance model followed by AAP and they too are trying to emulate it. The UPA government had hurriedly passed the Lokpal bill in an attempt to project that it is serious about fighting corruption prevalent in the country.

Taranum Qureshi, a student of Rizvi College, Bandra said, “AAP is doing a good job hence I want to become its member so that I can work for the welfare of the common man.”

Satyawan Mandawkar a student from St Andrew College, Bandra said, “It’s good to see that AAP is inviting the common man to join the party. I believe that the common man should join this party as it works for their welfare.”

Sunil Yadav, a shopkeeper from Bandra said, “Many parties have been functioning in Mumbai for so many years however they failed to provide good governance. I am joining AAP as I expect that it will transform the society.”

Many prominent faces like ex-Infosys board member V Balakrishnan, Remo Fernandes, Samir Nair and Pawan Munjal have joined the AAP. Party worker, Dilip, said, “We got Rs 50 lakh per day after December 8.”
Most of the new faces have quit their jobs to join the party. Former Royal Bank of Scotland executive Meera Sanyal has also joined the AAP and has offered to contest from the Mumbai South Constituency in the 2014 Lok Sabha Polls.

Sukhdev Patel, Convener of AAP asserted, “Our membership has increased manifold.”

Party worker, Kiran Shaw said, “Professionals are getting more and more interested in pursuing political career and AAP has obviously offered them a very interesting platform for doing that.”

The rise of AAP is giving sleepless nights to Congress party as it is keen to follow its footsteps for remaining in power. Close on the heels of 50 per cent tariff cut by AAP in Delhi AICC Secretary and Congress MP Sanjay Nirupam and MPCC president Manikrao Thackeray has demanded a tariff reduction of power consumption of less than 500 units per month in Mumbai. Nirupam has already sent a letter in this regard to Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan. The Congress which had received a severe jolt in the recently concluded assembly election wants to undo the damage by announcing people friendly policies. The party is closely watching the steps taken by AAP party in Delhi and trying to emulate it.

Talking to AV, Sanjay Nirupam said, “Middle class persons should be entitled to receive electricity at affordable price. I not bothered about the commercial class.

Nirupam said that an inquiry should be set up to investigate the pricing mechanism that is adopted by the companies which distribute power in the city.

Sanjay Nirupam threatened to agitate if the government fails to implement the welfare schemes. He said, “People residing in slums should receive some relief from the recurring electricity price hikes. If the government fails to implement this policy then we will protest.”

He pointed out that whenever the power was reduce in the past years, only the power companies benefited from the subsidy announced. Adding that benefit of the subsidy should only be passed on directly to the consumers.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) said that it has already put forward this proposal before the cabinet. NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said, “One and half month ago we had formed a committe under the leadership of Narayan Rane for overseeing the reduction in electricity tariffs. The Congress and AAP have only got into action now.”

Opposition parties are alleging that the Congress is blindly following AAP party and indulging in publicity stunt to woo voters. They also questioned why the Congress remained mum on this issue for so many years? Why the party didn’t demand for a reduction in electricity charges when they were in power?
Neelam Gorhe, Shiv Sena spokesperson said, “Why is the Congress worried about these issues now and what were they doing for the past five years. Since the general election is just round the corner hence Congress is indulging in such acts to lure voters. The party is also worried that if they don’t improve governance then they might have to face defeat in the election.”

BJP state president Devendra Fadnavis said, “Why did the Congress overlook this issue earlier why are they worried about it now? It’s a cheap tactics of the party to seek publicity.”

Maharasthra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said, “We will look into the power tariff issue. The decision has nothing to do with AAP’s announcement to lower electricity charges in Delhi.”

Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan might have taken a U-turn over the Adarsh report after Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi criticised the state government’s stand over the report but will action be taken against Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and former Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan? Senior ministers have been washing their hands off this issue and put the onus on the centre to take action against tainted ministers. They said that AICC will take a call in this regard. Earlier minister of state for communication Milind Deora had called for a debate on the judicial report pertaining to Adarsh Scam. He received support from Rahul Gandhi who had distanced himself from the state government’s decision to turn down the judicial report of the scam.

“The action against Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde comes under the purview of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The decision to allow or not allow former CM Ashok Chavan to contest Assembly elections also comes under AICC’s purview” said senior ministers from the Congress party.

Earlier the opposition parties like BJP and Shiv Sena has been demanding the resignation of Chavan for rejecting the Adarsh report. They alleged that the CM has been shielding the tainted ministers.

Shiv Sena MP and spokeperson Sanjay Raut said, “When the opposition parties had raised the Adarsh report issue in the assembly then CM Prithviraj Chavan turned a blind eye towards it but when Milind Deora and Rahul Gandhi took a tough stand Chavan became serious about it. A debate must be held about the Adarsh scam in Lok Sabha too and strict action must be taken against the accused.”

Leader of Opposition in Legislative Assembly Eknath Khadse demanded convening of a special session of state legislature to debate the report which has indicted four former Congress chief ministers, including current Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde.

“If the government does not accept our demands then we will take our protests to streets and to Parliament,” Khadse said.

“If they (Cong-NCP) are really serious about corruption, they should clear the hurdle for CBI to prosecute Ashok Chavan who has been indicted by the commission,” said Shiv Sena Group Leader in Legislative Assembly Subhash Desai.

Desai said Prithviraj Chavan’s clean image has taken a beating as he is “shielding” those indicted by the panel in its report. “The Chief Minister should resign on moral grounds,” he said.

On the other hand, MPCC Chief Manikrao Thakre defended Prithviraj Chavan and said that there is no need for him to step down from his post. “There is no question of Chief Minister resigning. The decision (to reject the report) had been taken after taking the cabinet into confidence,” Thakre said.

Chavan has already received flak for rejecting the Adarsh report. Of the politicians indicted in the report, former chief minister Shivajirao Nilengekar Patil is no longer an active player. Former CM Vilasrao Deshmukh is no more. This leaves with former CMs Ashok Chavan and Sushilkumar Shinde.

The Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi expressed his displeasure over the Maharashtra government’s decision to reject the Adarsh report. He wanted the government to reconsider the decision taken by it on the report. Ever since the Congress has lost assembly polls in four states Rahul has been showing some urgency to undo the damage by taking tough stand on issues like corruption and inflation which has severely affected the party’s performance.

Referring to the Maharashtra government’s decision to reject the report on the Adarsh scam, Rahul said, “I don’t agree with that decision, they should reconsider that”.

“There is no question of protecting anybody”, added Rahul Gandhi.

Earlier Maharasthra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan was reluctant to reverse the state cabinet decision to reject the Adarsh Commission report.

“I stand by the decision unanimously taken by the Cabinet in Nagpur. It was a collective decision and there is no question of reconsidering the matter,” Chavan said.

Chavan said he did not feel it necessary to explain the issue in detail since the state government had tabled an ATR (action taken report) along with the Adarsh Commission report. “It is self-explanatory,” he said.

The first two terms of reference covered by an earlier report said the land belonged to the state government and that the project was not confined to Kargil war heroes. The second report, tabled in the legislature in the winter session that concluded December 20, related to the others terms of reference (3-13) and was rejected by the government. “But we did table the entire report. So why accuse the government of concealing any fact,” Chavan added.

The Nationalist Congress Party had washed its hands of the Adarsh report and held Prithviraj Chavan responsible for rejecting the judicial commission report as he is the head of the cabinet. The Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had said that Chavan had taken this decision after receiving instructions from the Congress high command in Delhi.

“The decision to reject the Adarsh commission report was taken by the Chief Minister. The CM is head of the cabinet,” Ajit Pawar said.

He also added that the Opposition parties had a right to go to court against the Cabinet decision if they wanted to.

The probe report has indicted several top politicians and bureaucrats that include four former Congress chief ministers — late Vilasrao Deshmukh, Ashok Chavan, Sushilkumar Shinde and Shivajirao Patil-Nilangekar.

The state government had delayed submitting the report in the Assembly until the last day of the winter session, when it suddenly announced it was rejecting the report after the report was tabled by the Chief Minister along with an action taken report (ATR).

Sources close to the CM said the government was apprehensive that if it were to accept the report, it would be incumbent upon it to take action based on its findings. “This could have put the state in a piquant situation with sitting ministers named in the report,” said a Congress minister.
The BJP has been vociferous in its demand that the Maharashtra government take action on the Adarsh Housing scam.

“It’s ironical that Prithviraj Chavan, who was brought after the Adarsh scam broke out and who formed the Adarsh commission, has rejected the report. By rejecting the report, Chavan has hurt his own image of being Mr Clean,” state BJP chief Devendra Fadnavis said.