“It is observed that our alliance partner at the state and centre has tied up with the saffron alliance at the local level. In the capacity of chief minister of Congress-NCP alliance in the state government, I urge that the unholy alliance by the NCP at local level should be called off,” said Chavan while addressing the rally organised to mark the culmination of Janjagran Vikas Yatra launched by the city unit of Congress on Thursday.

Chavan who visited the city first time after taking over as the chief minister said the Congress and NCP have to go together in front of the public during the elections and hence needed to be united at the local level also.

Both the parties have a common secular agenda, Chavan said, adding that there were going to be differences of opinion, but these have to be kept aside by leaders of both the parties.

“We are an alliance of secular parties and need to take care that no wrong message goes out to the public. We should look ahead instead of thinking of differences of the past,” the chief minister said.

The workers of both the parties should pressure their respective leaders to come together as the success of the alliance depends much on the unified fight put up by the duo against the opposition parties, he said.

Counting the various populist decision taken by the state government, Chavan said the Vilasrao Deshmukh-led government gave a good governance during the last four years.He assured his government would address all the issues pertaining to the development of the city.

Chavan said the state government would consider the demand of reservation by various communities, including Maratha, on the basis of reports submitted by various commissions.

Earlier, Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi said the development of the city was suffering due to the NCP joining hands with Shiv Sena and BJP.

“The success of Congress in the Cantonment elections has proved that they are unhappy over the performance of the alliance in the neighbouring PMC,” he said. Kalmadi urged the chief minister to give a representation to the city in the state cabinet.

Senior Congress leader Ulhas Pawar said there should be no alliance either by NCP or Congress with saffron parties at any level. The alliance of Congress and NCP can strengthen only if they kept away from saffron parties, he said.

State Cooperation minister Harshvardhan Patil said the chief minister along with senior party leaders should bring to rest the issue of seat sharing with NCP.