NCP will seek more seats to contest in Maha elections: Pawar

NCP president Sharad Pawar today said his party would seek more seats to contest in the upcoming Assembly elections in Maharashtra and he will hold discussions with the Congress leadership in Delhi before deciding contours of the seat-sharing formula.
In an informal chat with reporters at the party office, Pawar said that NCP should get to contest more seats in those Assembly segments where the party was leading in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
While Congress won two out of 27 seats it had contested, its alliance partner NCP won four out of 21 seats.
During the last Assembly polls in 2009, the NCP had contested in 114 seats and Congress in 174 in the 288-member House.

"Both the parties will contest the Assembly elections together and the seat-sharing formula will be decided after he held discussions with the Congress leadership in Delhi," he said.
Pawar said that in yesterday's meeting with ministers he had discussed the party's strategy to contest the Assembly elections and also sought views of the district unit office-bearers on forthcoming elections.

"I will also consult the party observers in Assembly constituencies for a first hand report on the political situation and the party's position in the Assembly constituencies," the NCP chief said.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) spokesman Sachin Sawant said that Congress would stick to the seat-sharing formula of 2009.

"Based on our good performance in 2009 Assembly elections, we had demanded that we get to contest 29 and NCP 19 Lok Sabha seats this year which they (NCP) refused," he said.