By IANS,
New Delhi : In an indication of tension in their ties, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Friday accused the Congress party of not giving it any space and also said it would set up alliances at the state-level, including with the Left parties.
“The Congress is not giving us any space so, we have to create this space,” said party general secretary D.P. Tripathi here.
Tripathi said the Left parties’ protest against price rise was not against the NCP and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar but against the central government as a whole.
“Price rise is against the government as a whole, not against the NCP,” Tripathi said.
He said the NCP, which was recently accommodated as a partner in the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Democratic Front (LDF), would join the protest against price rise “if LDF protests against the government”.
Tripathi, chief spokesman of the NCP, however, said the party has every right to continue as a partner in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the centre.
“We have a right to continue at the centre,” Tripathi told reporters.
He said the party plans to set up an alliance with parties like the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Orissa and Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal in Uttar Pradesh.