Gujarat polls: NCP MLA files nomination from seat in Cong quota as 2 parties sign pact

We will not do anything that will harm the image of the NCP, he said.Thakor said there is a possibility NCP workers would demand more seats, but as per the alliance, the Pawar-led party will field candidates in only three constituencies.Elections in the BJP-ruled Gujarat will be held in two phases - on December 1 and 5, and the counting of votes will be taken up on December 8.

The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Friday entered into a pre-poll alliance for the next month's Gujarat Assembly elections, as part of which the Sharad Pawar-led outfit will contest three of the total 182 seats in the state, the two parties announced here.

In the 2017 Assembly elections, the Congress and the NCP had contested separately. NCP's Kandhal Jadeja was the only candidate to win from the party, bagging the Kutiyana Assembly seat in Porbandar district.

Making an announcement about the alliance at a press conference, Gujarat Congress president Jagdish Thakor said the NCP will contest three seats - Umreth (Anand district), Naroda (Ahmedabad) and Devgadh Baria (Dahod district) - as part of the tie-up.

These three seats are currently held by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Interestingly, on a day when the two parties announced the alliance, the only NCP MLA in Gujarat, Jadeja, filed his nomination from his current seat Kutiyana.

He did so despite the Congress having already announced the name of its candidate from the constituency in its first list released on November 4. The main opposition party has fielded its member Nathabhai Odedara from the seat in Porbandar district.

Asked about the move, Jadeja said he has filed nomination as an NCP candidate on direction of his party leader Praful Patel.

''I talked to Prafulbhai (Patel) and have filed my nomination form on behalf of the NCP on his direction,'' he said. Jadeja has won from the seat twice - in 2012 and 2017.

''The Congress has decided to forge an alliance with those parties that were with us in UPA-1 and 2 at the national level,'' Thakor said while expressing confidence the grand old party would return to power in the state by winning 125 seats.

He said people sharing the same ideology and working to save the Constitution as well as the country's unity are coming together against ''fascist'' forces, and this alliance is a part of that process.

At the press meet, NCP's state unit president Jayant Patel Boskey said the his party will support the Congress in fighting the Gujarat Assembly election.

''We will make sure that we contest these three seats with honesty. I am thankful for the trust reposed in us by the Congress. We will not do anything that will harm the image of the NCP,'' he said.

Thakor said there is a possibility NCP workers would demand more seats, but as per the alliance, the Pawar-led party will field candidates in only three constituencies.

Elections in the BJP-ruled Gujarat will be held in two phases - on December 1 and 5, and the counting of votes will be taken up on December 8.