Congress, NCP begin seat-sharing talks for Maharashtra polls

Seeking to end the uncertainty looming large over the fate of their 10-year-old alliance, Congress and NCP tonight began their formal seat-sharing talks for the October 13 Maharashtra Assembly elections. The meeting is being held at `Varsha', Chief Minister Ashok Chavan's official residence in South Mumbai.

Gearing up for hard bargaining, senior leaders from both parties, partners in the state's ruling Democratic Front, attended the meeting to initiate preliminary level talks for seat-sharing in the 288-member Assembly.

Top state Congress leaders arrived here this evening from Delhi after consultations with Defence Minister and AICC General Secretary in-charge of Maharashtra A K Antony. The notification for filing of nomination papers will be issued on September 18.

Buoyed by its impressive showing in the Lok Sabha polls, Congress has kept NCP on the tenterhooks over the issue of alliance. Union heavy industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has been leading the group within the Congress that is opposed to having an alliance with the NCP, which suffered reverses in its stronghold of Western Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha polls.

Deshmukh and senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh also asked the NCP to merge with the parent party since the issue of Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin, on which it was formed ten years ago, no longer exists.

Both parties have been talking tough on the issue of alliance, saying they had already completed the exercise of shortlisting probable candidates for all the 288 seats.

Party sources said Congress is likely to stake claim to 179 seats, leaving 109 for the NCP. However, the Congress can settle for three-four seats less, sources said. In 2004, NCP contested 124 seats and won 71, while Congress fought on 164 and bagged 69.

State Congress President Manikrao Thakre has said the party wants the tie-up to be freshly negotiated given the changed political scene post delimitation of constituencies. MPCC spokesman Hussain Dalwai has said the Congress expects the NCP to understand the new ground realities. "We will not exert pressure on the NCP like it had done on us in 2004 where we had to sacrifice two ministries," he said.

He said Congress has to accommodate independent MLAs who have joined the party and also three Shiv Sena MLAs who are supporters of Narayan Rane.

Besides Chavan and Thakre, Maharashtra Minister Narayan Rane, Mumbai Congress chief Kripashankar Singh, Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh represented Congress at the talks. Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde did not attend the meeting since he is out of town.

NCP was represented by Union Minister Praful Patel, Deputy CM Chhagan Bhujbal, state NCP chief R R Patil, Minister Ajit Pawar and Mumbai NCP President Sachin Ahir.