NCP, Congress will suffer badly if decision over seats not taken soon: Majid Memon

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Majid Memon on Sunday said that both his party and the Congress will suffer if there is a further delay in coming to a final conclusion over the seat sharing arrangement in the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections.

"The time is running out and the filing of nomination has started. Both parties are going to suffer if there is further delay. We have been preparing from the last three weeks for the elections but the Congress is still stuck at the earlier number of seats," said Memon.

"There is no bigger leader than Sharad Pawar in Maharashtra and we are ready to fight alone if such a situation comes up. But we do not want to divide the secular votes. We have been very reasonable and flexible till now, even a leader of Ajit dada's nature has mellowed down," he added.

Meanwhile, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Manoj Jha said that parties need to be a little more patient and compromising in an alliance.

"In an alliance, every party needs to be a little more patient and adjusting. While the Congress and the NCP usually are able to resolve issues in the end, the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance lack in that area which is going to create troubles for both the parties," said Jha.

Yesterday, NCP leader Praful Patel appeared to send an unmistakable signal to the Congress party that it should offer more seats to his party in the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly polls and asked the latter to take a decision within 24 hours.

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.

The stalemate between the Congress and NCP over seat sharing is brewing with the latter not willing to contest in less than 136 seats.

During the 2009 Maharashtra Assembly elections, the Congress had contested in 174 seats while the NCP had fought in 114 seats.

The polling for 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra is scheduled to be held on October 15 while the counting of votes will take place on October 19.