Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Dilip Walse Patil announced on Saturday that the party is ready to go solo in the the upcoming local body elections in Maharashta if an alliance with other parties fails to materialize. The NCP, currently part of the ruling Mahayuti alliance alongside the BJP and Shiv Sena, is led by Deputy CM Ajit Pawar.
Walse Patil, who is in Shirdi to attend the NCP convention in Ahilyanagar district, made the statement regarding the party's stance on the upcoming local body elections.
"All parties (of Mahayuti) will finalise their strategy for elections to local bodies. If the alliance doesn't materialise, the NCP is ready to contest independently," he told reporters.
In the November 20 Maharashtra assembly elections, the NCP secured 41 out of the 57 seats it contested. The upcoming local body elections will mark the first significant political contest between the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and the ruling Mahayuti since the assembly polls. Meanwhile, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) has declared its intention to fight the local body elections independently, though the election schedule is yet to be announced.