NCP awaits Congress response on seat-sharing

Party to begin interviews of aspirants for all 288 seats from Monday

Maharashtra’s ruling Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Saturday said it had presented its wish list to its alliance partner, the Congress for a seat-sharing deal during the forthcoming Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election slated for October.

NCP leader and close confidant of party chief Sharad Pawar, Praful Patel told reporters that the NCP was awaiting the Congress’ response as the latter had yet to make its position clear on seat-sharing for the Assembly poll.

“NCP and Congress held their first joint meeting on August 20. We have submitted our wish list and we now expect the Congress party's response,” Patel said. He clarified that so far, there was no talk about Congress and NCP contesting 288 Assembly seats on a 50:50 formula.

However, he admitted that there had been demands from NCP's district units to fight the Assembly poll independently. “No final decision has been taken in this regard as the seat-sharing talks between NCP and Congress have just begun. Whatever seat-sharing arrangement will be arrived at, it has to be a respectable one,” Patel said.

Meanwhile, NCP's parliamentary board will begin its three-day exercise from August 25 to hold interviews of party aspirants for all 288 Assembly seats.

NCP's exercise starts close on the heels of  interviews recently completed by the Congress parliamentary board for 174 Assembly seats. During the 2009 Assembly election, Congress had won 82 seats by contesting 174 while NCP bagged 62 after fighting on 114 seats.

A state executive leader of the NCP, who did not want to be named, justified the party's move to hold interviews in all 288 seats. “If at the last minute, Congress decides to break its alliance with NCP, then what will the party do? Therefore, it is better to be ready with an alternate plan. There is a view among party leaders and rank and file that NCP, which has won four seats, two more than the Congress party in the Lok Sabha,  should not bend but remain firm on tweaking the seat-sharing formula,” he added.