Congress, NCP top brass will decide about tie-up in Gujarat: Shankersingh Vaghela

AHMEDABAD: Top leaders of the NCP and the Congress will decide whether to join hands for the Lok Sabha polls in Gujarat, former state chief minister and NCP national general secretary Shankersingh Vaghela said on Friday.
He also predicted that the BJP will not come to power in the country after the general elections.
Vaghela, who quit the Congress in July 2017, months ahead of the state Assembly election after being in the party for over two decades, had joined the NCP in January this year.
He said he has conveyed to his party that he was not keen on contesting the Lok Sabha election.
Talking to PTI, the 78-year-old leader also dismissed reports, which said that the NCP might field him from Panchmahal Lok Sabha constituency in central Gujarat.
"I am not in the race to contest the election, because I have made an entry at a late stage. Personally, I am not going to contest," he said.
Vaghela said he has informed NCP chief Sharad Pawar about his decision. "I have told Pawar saheb that I should not be fielded as a candidate...I am not so keen. But whatever is decided from the top is acceptable to me," he said.
The Congress and the NCP have so far not entered into an alliance in the state. On being asked about it, the veteran leader said it was for Pawar and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi to decide.
Polling for the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat will be held in a single phase on April 23.
NCP sources said the party has demanded three seats, namely Panchmahal, Mehsana and Porbandar, from the Congress, but the latter is yet to respond.
Vaghela said that in neighbouring Maharashtra, alliance between the Congress and the NCP will make a difference.
"BJP-Shiv Sena will not win more than 30 per cent seats in Maharashtra, as the difference is clearly visible after the NCP and the Congress forged an alliance," he said.
"In Gujarat, if the Congress selects good candidates, it can win 12 seats. I am ready to campaign for other parties as long as the contest is against the BJP," he said.
Vaghela, who had served as a Union minister in the Manmohan Singh government at the Centre, said a united opposition was crucial to defeat the BJP, and he will continue with his efforts to pull together anti-BJP forces at the national level.
"My effort has been to hold talks with the leaders of political parties. I have been asking them to stick together, reduce differences and use proper language against each other during the election and fight the polls considering the possibility that they may have to come together," he said.
"Whosoever wins against the BJP should come together. So I asked them to refrain from using language that could become a roadblock in forming alliances after the results are announced," he said.
Vaghela said instead of contesting the Lok Sabha election, he would continue with his effort of bringing together like-minded parties and leaders against the BJP.
"We have made two-three rounds across the country in the last six months. As per the feedback that I have received, if like-minded parties put up one-to-one fight against the BJP, it will be reduced to 140-170 seats," he said.
"BJP will not come to power this time," he predicted.
The Congress and the NCP had contested the 2017 Assembly polls separately with the latter managing to win just one seat in the 182-member House.
Vaghela had quit the Congress before the 2017 Gujarat elections, after he and some of the MLAs supporting him voted against Ahmed Patel, Congress's candidate for the Rajya Sabha, and backed BJP nominee Balvantsinh Rajput.
Vaghela, however, did not join the ruling BJP and put up independent candidates in the state elections. However, all of them lost.
The former Gujarat chief minister recently visited various places, including Delhi, announcing that he would work against the BJP-led government at the Centre.
Vaghela started his career with the BJP, but in 1996 engineered a split in the saffron party after he was denied chief ministership a year earlier in favour of Keshubhai Patel.
In 1996, he became the state's chief minister with outside support from the Congress. He also served as the Gujarat Congress president and the leader of opposition in the state Assembly.