Congress confident of retaining power in Maharashtra

Undeterred by opinion polls that predict a hung assembly after Tuesday's Maharashtra assembly polls, the Congress on Monday said the party is confident of forming the government with its ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Undeterred by opinion polls that predict a hung assembly after Tuesday's Maharashtra assembly polls, the Congress on Monday said the party is confident of forming the government with its ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

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"We are confident of forming the government in Maharashtra with NCP and the performance of Congress would be much better this time. We are hopeful of reaching three digits," Mohan Prakash, Congress secretary, told reporters here.

Prakash said the performance of coalition partner NCP "would also be satisfactory".

Prakash said opinions polls predicting a hung assembly would be proven wrong once the results are announced.

An opinion poll conducted by Star News channel had said that it would be a hung verdict in Maharashtra but the Congress-NCP alliance would end with most seats.

According to the poll, the ruling Congress-NCP combine will win up to 140 of the 288 assembly seats. It said the Congress would get 88 seats and the NCP 52 seats.

In 2004, the NCP had won 71 and the Congress 69 seats. The Shiv-Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party combine and Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena are the other main contenders in the polls.

The election results will be announced October 22.