Sharad Pawar stamp on good show by NCP

New Delhi: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) under its chief Sharad Pawar is the only political party which could be on course for improving its tally from the 2014 assembly polls. This comes as a surprise because in the run up to the polls, it was widely speculated that the regional party would struggle to retain its seats.

After losing to the combine strength of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena in the Lok Sabha polls, NCP has managed to revive itself and remain politically relevant in the assembly elections. As per the Election Commission, the NCP is leading in 53 seats. The gains come on the back of aggressive campaign by 78-year-old Pawar who spearheaded the election rallies for his party.

The party had won only 41 seats in 2014 assembly polls but it has this time not only managed to retain many of those but also added to its overall. The gains for NCP comes even as its top leaders including Pawar, former union minister Praful Patel and Ajit Pawar are all facing corruption allegations and are being investigated by the enforcement directorate under separate case of money laundering.

With just 4 seats in Lok Sabha in the 2019 general elections, the party has managed to script a return in just five months. The electoral performance of the party is also significant because NCP had contested fewer seats than its alliance partner Congress.

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