'NCP, Congress to fight Maharashtra legislative council polls together'

Nagpur: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress have decided to fight the upcoming Maharashtra Legislative Council polls together, state NCP chief Sunil Tatkare said on Thursday.

The parties had fought last year's Maharashtra Assembly elections separately.

"NCP and Congress, allies in the erstwhile Democratic Front government will join hands and contest seven out of eight seats, which are going to polls in last week of December," Mr Tatkare, a former state Irrigation Minister, told reporters in Nagpur.

The NCP leader said he had spoken to Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Ashok Chavan in this regard and he has also given his in principle nod to the proposal.

"Our next round of talks will take place on November 30," he added.

Dubbing as "total failure" the first year of the Devendra Fadanvis government, Mr Tatkare said, "It has failed on all fronts, be it controlling the rising prices of essential commodities, particularly pulses, farmers' suicide, loan waiver, law and order situation and co-ordination among the allies."

Farmers are in distress. The cotton growers, soybean and orange growers are not getting adequate prices to their produce. The state government has failed to tackle the drought-like situation and it was surprising that the Centre is not responding to the state on central assistance to deal with the crisis, he alleged.