The Congress-NCP alliance Democratic Front is ruling Maharashtra since 1999 and is hoping to do a hat-trick.

In the 2004 assembly polls, the Congress contested 157 of the 288 seats and the NCP fought for 127 seats, leaving the rest to their allies. The NCP won 71 seats while the Congress got 69.

In the April-May Lok Sabha elections, the Congress contested 25 of the 48 seats in the state and won 17, while the NCP won only eight of the 21 seats it contested.

Several Congress leaders, including central Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh have been advocating that the party should go it alone in the assembly elections.

However, several factors, including the united Third Front and the untested Maharashtra Navnirman Sena of Raj Thackeray, have prompted the Congress and NCP to hammer out an alliance.