The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has set a target to achieve success in at least 15 Lok Sabha seats in the coming elections. Party district presidents and observers were appealed to start preparations for strengthening of the organisation.
The first executive committee meeting was held at NCP headquarters in Nariman Point on Wednesday after the appointment of Bhaskar Jadhav and Jitendra Awhad as state president and working president, respectively.
Addressing party leaders, according to the sources, Mr Jadhav said, “As we all know, we have little time left
for the preparations for the elections, so work harder than before. We have to win at least 15 Lok Sabha seats this time.”
Mr Jadhav also asked them to inform the people about the decisions taken by the state and Central government. Awareness about welfare schemes run by the government also make a big difference, he said, according to sources.
Mr Awhad asked party leaders to reply aggressively to the criticism and allegations of the opposition parties, said the sources. The working president said that the opposition parties were trying to malign the image of the government and hence were making false and baseless allegations, sources claimed.
“How can we remain quiet when
someone is trying to malign us? Don’t hesitate. Reply to them aggressively. We must give them a ‘tit for tat’ reply, because they deserve it,” the working president said while addressing the meet.
Out of the total 48 Lok Sabha seats across the state, NCP has 22 seats in alliance with Congress. In the last Lok Sabha elections, the party managed to achieve only eight seats, while its ally Congress secured 17 seats.
Making a big change, the NCP recently appointed two presidents to head the state unit after former unit chief Madhukar Pichad was inducted into the Cabinet as tribal development minister.