NCP keen on alliance with VBA for Maha polls: Ajit Pawar

Senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar has said his party would like to forge an alliance with the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) for the next month's Maharashtra Assembly elections.

The VBA contested the Lok Sabha polls held earlier this year independently. As a result, the Congress-NCP alliance and the VBA suffered losses, Pawar said.

"We are (now) trying to bring together like-minded people. We would also like to have an alliance with VBA," he said addressing a gathering here on Sunday evening.

The former state deputy chief minister said out of the total eight Assembly seats in Pune city, the NCP will contest four and the Congress-three.

Discussion is on for the remaining one seat and there is a possibility that it may be given to another ally, he said.

Pawar said many NCP activists are keen on contesting the Assembly polls, "but we can give tickets only to a limited number of aspirants".

Notably, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), which contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in alliance with the VBA, snapped ties with the Prakash Ambedkar-led outfit earlier this month.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar last week said his party and the Congress will contest 125 seats each out of the total 288 in the Assembly polls, scheduled to be held in a single phase on October 21.

As per the arrangement, 38 seats will be left for other allies to contest, he said, adding that the NCP will give chance to "new faces" in the polls.