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Mid-term polls stare Maharashtra in the face

Swati Kulkarni in Bombay

If the public posturing of the state Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party leaders is anything to go by, a mid-term poll in the state is almost a certainty now.

Every major political party in the state has begun positioning itself to be within striking distance of power, if and when elections are held.

A senior All-India Congress Committee office-bearer admitted that even the high command does not expect the Democratic Front government to last long. "At best the government will survive for two years," he said.

Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Govindrao Adik has already undertaken a state-wide mass-contact programme, while NCP chief Sharad Pawar too has been holding meetings with grassroots workers.

The ruling partners recently clashed in the Navi Mumbai municipal elections, where the Congress sought Shiv Sena's support to install its candidate in the deputy mayor's chair. While this did not go well with the NCP, it also brought to the fore the differences between the Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Shiv Sena was probably reacting to the BJP's decision to go it alone in the elections to the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation where the former suffered a humiliating defeat.

Later, at its state-level convention the BJP went public with its desire to rule the state alone. And Union Home Minister, L K Advani, topped it all by dismissing Sena's allegations of Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal's ISI links.

Though Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is trying to keep his flock together by promising a cabinet expansion, critics say this is at best a temporary measure.

The NCP, which had forced the Congress to prune the size of the state ministry, is unlikely to object to the expansion this time.

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