This Article is From Oct 22, 2009

Major alliances

Major alliances
New Delhi: Maharashtra: Congress party has fought the 2009 assembly elections in Maharashtra in alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has contested in alliance with the Shiv Sena.

Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has gone alone trying to win over the people with the Marathi-only ideology.

In a pre-election blow to the 18-party Third Front, the Republican Party of India (RPI-Gavai) walked out of the alliance.

The Congress has bolstered its position in Maharashtra after the last elections to the Lok Sabha when it bagged 17 out of the 26 seats where it had been in the fray. On the contrary, the NCP put up a poor show by winning only 8 out of the 22 seats it had contested.

Earlier, adapting to the post-election scenario, the NCP and Congress decided to come together and form a government in the state after the 1999 assembly elections. In 2004, both parties decided to enter into a pre-election alliance for both the parliamentary election in April-May and the assembly election in October.

Haryana: Congress is seeking a second term in office on the plank of development. The opposition in the state is a house divided with BJP snapping the tie-up with Om Prakash Chautala's INLD and BSP coming out of an alliance with Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC).

BJP's decision to go it alone was largely a fallout of its debacle in the Lok Sabha polls, in which Congress romped home with nine out of ten seats in the state, leaving the principal opposition party no alternative but to snap ties with the Indian National Lok Dal. With the trend suggesting that it would be difficult to beat the ruling party alone, BJP for once tried its best to set up an alliance with HJC after its fall out with Bahujan Samaj Party and INLD. But talks failed.

The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has contested the elections in alliance with the ruling Akali Dal of Punjab. Most of opposition parties in Haryana are fighting against each other.
.