Mumbai, Feb. 5: A day after the Congress hinted at a post-poll dialogue with the Nationalist Congress Party in the aftermath of the Maharashtra municipal elections, the NCP sent positive signals to its ally.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar today reviewed the performance of his party in 10 civic bodies — the February 1 election threw up a hung House in seven of them — and suggested an alignment with secular parties (read the Congress). Party MLAs, MPs, district chiefs and senior leaders attended the meeting.

Clearly unhappy with the show in the Mumbai and Nagpur civic bodies, where the NCP did not add any fresh seats, Pawar asked the respective party units to concentrate on improving their performance in these two cities.

The NCP had failed to arrive at a pre-poll alliance with the Congress after a fortnight of discussions, and barring the Akola corporation, it resolved to fight the elections independently.

The division of the secular votes saw the Shiv Sena-BJP storming back to power in Mumbai, while the NCP failed to increase its 2002 tally of 14 seats.

In Nagpur, the Nitin Gadkari-led BJP turned the tables on the Congress, winning a clear majority by bagging 56 seats compared with the Congress’s tally of 33. The NCP and the Sena managed merely eight seats.

The NCP got a majority in its traditional stronghold of Pimpri-Chinchwad and in Pune, where it bagged 42 seats compared with the Congress’s 35.

NCP state president Arun Gujarati said the party had improved its voting percentages in 10 cities, and gained 34 more seats overall.

Apart from Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, the NCP is the only mainstream party to have gained more seats in this election compared to 2002.