NCP cancels release of poll manisfesto

Mumbai: The lack of coordination among Opposition parties has come to the fore, with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) having to cancel its plans to release its manifesto for the forthcoming Assembly elections at the eleventh hour.

The decision was taken due to objections raised by its alliance partner, the Congress.

“Our manifesto was ready. But due to the insistence of other Opposition parties, we decided not to release it today. The joint manifesto of the Opposition parties will soon be released,” said NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik.

While the NCP had announced at a press meet Monday that it would release its manifesto, Mr Malik told the media that the release had been cancelled. “We had prepared our vision document by taking into account the results of the study and the people’s feedback. But the Opposition parties are saying that there should a combined manifesto, as it is a front of several parties. Hence, a joint manifesto should be released soon,” Mr Malik said. However, the last-minute cancellation was viewed as a lack of coordination by political observers.  An observer said, “If they wanted to release the manifesto jointly, the decision should have been taken well in advance. One party announcing its decision to release its own manifesto, and the other party later asking it to cancel the release shows an absence of proper dialogue between them. The Opposition parties need to get their act together.