Mumbai: With the Election Commission expected to announce any day the dates of assembly elections in Maharashtra, the ruling Congress party kicked off its campaign on Monday at the historic Hutatma Chowk (formerly Flora Fountain) and targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 100 days in power.

The Congress’s poll campaign was launched by the party’s campaign head and Industries Minister Narayan Rane in the presence of Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and other top leaders.

Leaving out its coalition partner, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and with no mention of the BJP’s ally, the Shiv Sena, the focus of attack was the BJP.

Chavan alleged that the BJP-led NDA government was withholding power from the central grids deliberately and said, “If the Centre does not take any steps, there will be severe power crisis in the country. Though the Centre is attempting to put Maharashtra government in trouble by not allocating electricity from the central grid, we will not allow our people to be affected. The state will do everything possible to ensure that people get electricity.”

Chavan said the report card of first 100 days of the Modi government was “dismal”.

Except inaugurating projects, started and completed by the Congress-led UPA government, he said, it has done nothing, including not controlling prices and not adopting a hardline Pakistan policy.

“There are several instances of ceasefire violations from across the border but those at the helm of affairs are quiet,” he said. He also said that the Centre-state relations that were protected by the Congress are in danger.

Though the Congress and NCP have been fighting elections together for 15 years in the state, the former’s poor performance in the general elections this year has prompted the NCP to demand a 50:50 share of seats. According to the 2009 pact, the Congress is entitled to 174 seats and the NCP 114 out of the 288 assembly constituencies.

When campaign head, Rane, was asked about the seat sharing with NCP, he said that decision will be taken by the high commands of both the parties. On Sunday, the Congress took interviews of party candidates in remaining 114 seats, which is the quota of its alliance partner. The move came after it found that the NCP had interviewed candidates for 288 seats.

Meanwhile, the state BJP is waiting for BJP national president Amit Shah to arrive on Thursday in Mumbai when talks with party functionaries will be held. It is only after this meet will a strategy be formulated, said a state BJP leader. Here too, the BJP has been demanding a 50:50 share of seats from the existing BJP’s share of 119 constituencies. However, there are junior allies of Sena-BJP combine who are also expecting a share in the pie. Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has convened a meeting of party’s regional heads on September 5 to decide future course of action if seat sharing talks fail.