Nagpur, (The Hindu): The alliance of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Maharashtra, even if Narendra Modi remains the Prime Minister, said Leader of Opposition in the Council Dhananjay Munde on Wednesday.

Asked about the NCP and the Congress joining hands for the general and Assembly elections, Mr. Munde said, “My hunch is that the BJP will hold the Assembly elections along with the general elections, which will be held in the summer of 2019. Both the parties are talking about the possibility of alliance before the polls.”

“It is clear that the BJP and the Shiv Sena are not very comfortable with each other. The way the BJP is treating the Sena, I don’t think they will contest together. Whereas the Congress and the NCP are likely to contest both the elections together,” he told reporters ahead of the session.

On Tuesday, Congress MLA Sunil Kedar and NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad held a press conference asking both the parties to join hands for the 2019 Assembly polls.

In the Gujarat Assembly polls, the parties, however, could not reach a consensus on seat sharing. Congress leaders have claimed that had the NCP joined hands, they could have come to power. “The NCP had demanded six seats in Gujarat. As per my information, Sharad Pawar and Sonia Gandhi had agreed to seat sharing. But the next day, the Congress had announced their list for the seats, which we were going to contest. This is how the Congress treated us; and the NCP decided to go ahead. Having forced us to contest, they should now not blame us,” Mr. Munde said.