Congress & NCP turn friends again, promise to fight 2019 polls together

The Congress and the Nationalist Congress party (NCP) on Tuesday decided to come together to fight the 2019 elections, and held a rally in Nagpur to protest against the BJP's failed promises and the delay in clearing farmers' loans.

"We (Congress and NCP) will fight the 2019 elections as an alliance, and will come to power. A change is already happening in Gujarat and will soon spread to the rest of the country," said former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan.

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad echoed Chavan's views saying, "We are separate now, but who knows, we could come together. We are anyway working together, and our ideology is the same," said Azad.


The NCP too expressed similar sentiments with Praful Patel saying that the two parties should remain united, and he was sure that they would come to power in 2019.

The bonhomie between the Congress and NCP was evident when NCP chief Sharad Pawar slammed PM Narendra Modi for questioning why former PM Manmohan Singh met Pakistani officials.

"Nobody can cast a doubt on Manmohan Singh, but now he has been accused of being in cahoots with Pakistan. They should be embarrassed of making such allegations against Pakistan… You ignore people's issues, and then to escape their anger, you bring in the issue of Pakistan," said Pawar.

In 2014, the Congress and NCP broke their decade-old alliance following a bitter battle over seat sharing, leading the way for a BJP victory. The party mot only came to power on its own for the first time in the state, but also went on to win a number of civic and local body polls. Also, a number of Congress and NCP leaders crossed over to the BJP.