Preliminary alliance talks with NCP complete: Maha Cong chief

Maharashtra Congress president Ashok Chavan today said the party has completed the preliminary talks for a pre-poll alliance with the NCP for the coming Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections.

He was talking to reporters at Nanded where the state Congress today held a meeting of party workers from the Marathwada region.

"Preliminary talks with the NCP have been completed," he said.

"We will also take along like-minded parties such as the Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh, Samajwadi Party, Republican Party of India," the former chief minister said.

The Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party and Congress were in power in Maharashtra for 15 years. The alliance broke up before the 2014 Assembly elections.

 

To a question, Chavan described the BJP-led Maharashtra government's claim that rural areas of the state are now open defecation-free as "laughable".

"Even today, 40 to 45 thousand families could be without access to toilets in every district," the Congress leader claimed.