Maharashtra polls: Congress blames corruption charges against NCP for poor show

NEW DELHI: With trends indicating a victory for BJP in Maharashtra, Congress today blamed corruption charges against its erstwhile coalition partner NCP and an overall anti-incumbency factor for the party's "depressing" performance in the State.

The party also took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying there was "no wave" in his favour as the trends indicated that BJP may fall short of majority.

"Let me equally and candidly admit that in Maharashtra, we have had not only real but a perception of corruption also and that has been unfortunately and mostly attributed to our coalition partner. That has got us bad press and negative points. Some of it had been Congress but the overall impact has been negative," party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said.

Maintaining that the good work of the government there was drowned by corruption issues, Singhvi said "...it is something very serious and sad and suitably depressing if they (the trends) turn out to be true. We have to take corrective action which we would."

Terming Modi wave as "elusive", he said while the BJP was making tall claims about it, the leads which suggest that they will get only 110-120 seats deny it.

"Winning is one part. After 15 years we can't be very very optimistic of winning a large number of seats. There is natural anti-incumbency. But winning apart, where is this Modi wave? Where is the elusive, mysterious and much-talked about Modi wave?"

On Haryana, where trends indicate a crushing defeat to the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government, Singhvi said the state government like the one in Maharashtra had done good work but the defeat will be analysed.
Another party spokesperson Shobha Oza said that while there was "no Modi wave", the 15-year-old anti incumbency in Maharashtra and 10-year-old anti-incumbency in Haryana did the party in.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a number of rallies and yet BJP could not get a clear majority in Maharashtra. So where is the Modi wave?" she asked.

Oza also dismissed contentions that the results are any reflection on the central leadership of Congress.

"We had fought these elections on the issue of development. Both state governments had done good work but there was anti-incumbency," she said.

Former Union Minister Rajiv Shukla said the partymen are indeed "disappointed" with the results but felt that the euphoria about Modi has "diminished" a bit.

"BJP-Shiv Sena had leads in 244 Assembly seats as per the vote share in last Lok Sabha polls. They have come down this time. Modi wave is there but it has diminished a bit. It's true we are disappointed with the results. We were expecting better results," he said.