Cong to finalize pending seats, talks on with NCP: Prithviraj Chavan

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday said that the Congress will meet the party leadership to finalize the allocation of seats which are pending. He also added that talks are still on with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) over the seat sharing issue and are going out on a separate track.

"We had done our exercise of finalizing our candidates and that exercise has been going on with the Central Election Committee. We are meeting the leadership to finalize the seats which are pending. Discussion with the NCP is going on in a separate track," said Chavan.

"We are not waiting for the NCP; discussions are going on with them. In such talks, there are no deadlines, we are friends and we have been discussing it, which are going on at different levels," he added.

Earlier in the day, the NCP had called its core committee meeting in Mumbai to discuss the seat sharing issue with Congress.

The stalemate between the Congress and NCP over seat sharing is brewing with the latter not willing to contest in less than 136 seats. The Congress has reportedly offered only 125 seats to its ally, keeping the rest of the seats with itself to contest in the upcoming state assembly polls.

In the last elections, of the total 288 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly, the Congress had contested in 174 seats while the NCP had fought from 114 seats. This year, the elections are scheduled to be held on October 15, with the counting of votes to take place on October 19.