Congress to keep alliance with NCP: Chavan

The Congress will keep its alliance with the NCP in Maharashtra for the 2014 Lok Sabha election but it will seek more seats to contest, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said Wednesday.

The Congress and the NCP run a coalition government in the state and are partners in the ruling United Progressive Alliance in New Delhi.

"We will go to polls with NCP," Chavan told the media here.

However, he said the Congress should get more seats based on the results of the Lok Sabha and assembly elections of 2009.

According to Chavan, the seat sharing between the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party was 26:22 in 2009. While the Congress bagged 17 seats, the NCP won eight.

A few months later, the seat sharing arrangement between the two parties was 174:114 for the 288-member assembly.

"We should get 29 seats and the NCP 19 given this ratio," said Chavan. "These are legitimate aspirations of the Congress."

Both the Congress and NCP come from the same political ideology and both opposed communal forces, he said.