Congress list for Maharashtra likely today

The Congress is said to have prepared the list of most of its candidates for Maharashtra Assembly elections, which could be out on Wednesday, amid expectations that the seat-sharing arrangement with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) would be clinched soon.

Earlier, the Congress was sticking to its proposal of 124 seats to NCP, while the NCP was demanding 144 seats. NCP also demanded the tenure of chief minister be divided equally between the alliance partners for two-and-a-half years each.

However, the Congress has not yet responded positively to the demand. The Congress had earlier indicated it was prepared to go solo if the agreement was not reached.

At a meeting, the Congress was represented by Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, state party chief Manikrao Thakre, Narayan Rane and party general secretary in-charge of Maharashtra, Mohan Prakash.

On the other hand, NCP team comprised former union minister Praful Patel, state Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, state public works minister Chhagan Bhujbal and state unit chief Sunil Tatkare.