Cong should show some sense, give us 50 pc seats in Maha: NCP

After losing the Lok Sabha polls Congress should show some sense and be ready to give 50 per cent of seats to the NCP in the upcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra, a NCP general secretary D P Tripathi said today.
He told reporters that political reality is that NCP should get two-third seats following its showing in the Lok Sabha polls vis-a-vis Congress in the state, but it was ready to settle for half the seats.
Tripathi suggested that the issue of leadership in the state needed to be thought afresh in the backdrop of the changed situation that has seen NCP winning four while Congress just two seats in the Lok Sabha polls which concluded in May.

"Congress should learn lessons from its defeat and change its style of functioning as also dealing with its allies," he said, adding if the alliance is broken in the state the blame will squarely go to the Congress.
Asked whether Maharashtra should have a Jammu and Kashmir type formula of power sharing between Congress and National Conference, Tripathi remarked Congress should have thought it in 2004.
Asked about the leadership of Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, he took a dig saying everyone saw how effective it was during the Lok Sabha polls.

Tripathi was critical of Congress for the attack on Natwar Singh saying that insulting the senior leader by suggesting that he has written the book for cheap popularity would only damage Sonia Gandhi and the Congress.

He made a strong pitch for granting Leader of Opposition post in the Lok Sabha to the Congress.
Picking holes in the arguments of the Attorney General, he wondered why when alliance and coalition are allowed to form a government, then why they cannot form an effective opposition.