Cong-NCP finalise seat-sharing deal in Maharashtra

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, September 16

The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will contest 125 seats each in the Maharashtra assembly leaving 38 seats to their allies, NCP chief Sharad Pawar announced at a press conference in Nashik on Monday.

Without mentioning names, the Maratha strongman indicated that parties which are part of other fronts are likely to tie-up with Congress-NCP combine. 

“The leaders of the Congress and the NCP will deciding on exchanging 15 to 20 seats among themselves,” Pawar said.

With several senior leaders of the NCP leaving for the BJP and the Shiv Sena, the NCP chieftain said several new faces would be fielded in the forthcoming assembly elections. “We will give a chance to several new candidates to prove themselves,” Pawar said.

Regarding the recent spate of defections from the NCP, he blamed the BJP of luring his party leaders. “I have been in the opposition for 24 years, but others are in a hurry,” he added.

The Congress and the NCP had broken their 15-year old alliance ahead of the 2014 assembly elections which paved the way for the BJP and the Shiv Sena to contest on their own as well. While Congress won 42 seats, the NCP bagged 41 while the BJP emerged as the single largest party with 122 seats.

Meanwhile, both the Congress and the NCP indicated that they would be fielding all their senior leaders in the Assembly elections. 

Former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan told reporters here that he was keen on contesting from the South Karad assembly from where he won by a margin of more than 14,000 votes in 2014.