Congress, NCP seal pact in Maharashtra for LS polls

Of the 48 seats in the state, Congress will contest 26 and NCP will contest 22 on a common manifesto

The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra on Monday sealed a seat-sharing deal for the Lok Sabha elections. Of the 48 seats, the Congress will contest 26 and the NCP the balance 22, on a common manifesto.

The announcement was made by Union Minister of Heavy Industries and NCP leader Praful Patel and Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan.

The formula comes on the heels of the understanding reached by the Shiv Sena, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Republican Party of India and Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana to forge a Maha Yuti (grand alliance) to take on the Congress-NCP in Maharashtra.



The Congress and the NCP have agreed to explore possibilities of the exchange of a few seats among themselves. The Congress, which had won 17 seats in the 2009 polls, has expressed its desire to stake its claim on the Raver and Hingoli seats, contested by the NCP in the last elections. The NCP, which had bagged eight seats in the previous polls, is keen to get the Raigad and Washim-Yavatmal constituencies from the Congress quota. The NCP might field Water Resources Minister Sunil Tatkare or state party chief Bhaskar Jadhav from Raigad and Minister for Food and Drugs administration Manohar Naik from Washim-Yavatmal, dominated by the Banjara and Maratha communities. Besides, the NCP has shown its willingness to leave Hatkalangade in Kolhapur district to the Congress. The NCP had badly lost Hatkalangade to Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana leader Raju Shetty in 2009 polls and is unsure of winning it.

The constituency is dominated by the Jain community and the NCP believes that the Congress can regain the Jains’ confidence if it nominates veteran leader and former MP Kalappa Awade, who himself is Jain.

“The alliance between Congress and the NCP continues, both at the national and state level as before. The finalisation of the seat-sharing formula will augment the campaign programme of both the parties together,” Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee spokesman Ratnakar Mahajan told Business Standard.

Mahajan took a swipe on the MayaYuti. He, however opined that the MahaYuti would reap what they had sown