Mumbai, Feb 10: Ruling out the possibility of post-poll alliance with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has said an increase in the vote share of Raj Thackeray-led party would help the Congress-NCP combine in the February 16 Mumbai civic polls.
In 2007 election, Congress and NCP could have got as many as 132 of the 227 seats in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had they contested jointly, Chavan said, talking to reporters here.
As to the `MNS factor', Chavan said, "I think there is a space for the so called Shiv Sena-like mindset. A more finer division of votes between MNS and Sena will help us."
"Earlier, Shiv Sena had a larger share of votes compared to MNS. Now that same vote, if shared equally by both, helps us," he added.
"The question is whether MNS will take a whole lot of Congress votes, a whole lot of NCP votes and a whole lot of Sena votes," he said.
"My survey has shown that MNS vote percentage has gone up, but not gone up enough to make it winner," Chavan said, stating that there was no possibility of Congress-NCP joining hands with MNS after the results.
To a query on what action the state government proposed to take on Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's 'hate' speeches, Chavan said, "I have told the law and order agencies to act within the ambit of law on the matter."
