New Delhi:
With Sharad Pawar's NCP posting a below-expectation performance, questions have arisen whether the Congress would follow the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar model of going it alone in Maharashtra in the Assembly elections due soon.
Buoyed by the good showing of the party in the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls in which Pawar's party was an "also ran", party leaders have started talking about such a possibility.
Former Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is prominent in the campaign of 'going it alone' in Maharashtra contending that there was no longer any need for the party to tie itself to the apron strings of Pawar.
Maharashtra will be the first state to witness assembly polls after the Lok Sabha elections and a keen tussle is on the cards in the state with the emergence of Raj Thackeray's Maharshtra Navnirman Sena cutting into the Shiv Sena-BJP
support base.
Congress has won 17 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state while NCP had to contend with just eight as it suffered losses in its stronghold of western Maharashtra.
The alliance between Congress and NCP has been on in the state for nearly ten years. It was struck soon after Pawar parted ways with the Congress on the issue of foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi.
Just before the Lok Sabha elections, a meeting of DCC presidents convened by state PCC Chief Manikrao Thakre had witnessed most of the participants wanting the party to fight the general elections on its own.
The clamour for going it alone has rose after the Lok Sabha results.
Pawar's daughter and NCP MP Supriya Sule has already said the NCP was keen for continuing the alliance, but if Congress wants to break free then "we are prepared to contest on our own".
The importance given to Pawar in the Union Cabinet, despite his detractors in the Congress failing to persuade the high command to give him a ministry less than last time, indicates that it is not at present in favour of rubbing the Maratha strongman the wrong way.
In fact, AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi has praised Pawar for supporting the UPA without any conditions in the formation of the new government at the Centre.
The high command has also given clear signals that Pawar is an ally and will continue to be so.
"The Congress and the NCP have an alliance in Maharashtra. It is also an alliance partner in the UPA. Anything contrary to this is not the opinion of the party,"
has been the refrain of the AICC.