Aggressive campaigning by Pawar helped Cong too

The Congress has benefitted from NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s aggressive campaigning, despite the grand old party’s leaders keeping a low profile during campaigning, say experts.

Despite having dominated the politics of Maharashtra since its inception until 2014, the Congress will not even be the principal Opposition party. While the party managed to bag 44 seats in the state, its tally is still less than that of its alliance partner, the NCP, which won 54 seats.

Senior journalist Sanjay Miskin said, “The Pawar factor worked for the alliance due to which, it could reach 100 seats in the state.”

Another senior journalist, Partap Asbe, also said that the NCP chief ’s campaign helped both parties as he was able to attract young voters.

Notably, city Congress leaders such as Milind Deora and Sanjay Nirupam, as well as former party president Rahul Gandhi all but invisible at the beginning of the poll campaign.

Even Maharashtra Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat and Ashok Chavan were busy campaigning in their own constituencies and could not campaign at other places.

Interestingly, senior Congress leader and former chief minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had even quiped that the Congress and the NCP should merge. However, Mr Pawar had rubbished such a possibility.

Despite a difficult campaign, the Congress-NCP won majority of its seats in western Maharashtra, a bastion of the alliance. By evening, the alliance had bagged 38 seats in western Maharshtra, where Mr Pawar campaigned extensively.

Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said that workers of both parties helped each other.

However, he was quick to add, “Congress leaders, too, campaigned well and it is not only because of the impact of Sharad Pawar’s campaign.”