New Delhi, Sep 16 (Inditop.com) The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is ready to concede more seats to its ally Congress in the Maharashtra assembly elections and seat sharing talks between them are going on smoothly, NCP leader Praful Patel said Wednesday.
“The Congress contested a large number of seats last time, they will contest more seats this time. Some seats do not exist after delimitation (of constituencies). We are ready to give certain seats to Congress,” he told reporters here.
A Congress leader close to the development, speaking on condition of anonymity, claimed that NCP had agreed to concede around 20 seats more than in the 2004 elections when the Congress contested 157 seats.
Praful Patel’s statement comes a day after the Congress and NCP’s first round of official talks over seat sharing ended in Mumbai.
Patel said: “There is no problem in arriving at a seat sharing arrangement. We will contest the elections together. We will resolve the seat sharing issue amicably in a day or two.”
According to a Congress leader, associated with the preparation of election strategy in the state, “the seat sharing has almost been finalised.” He claimed: “The Congress will contest on 174 seats and NCP on 114”.
The leader also said the Congress will bring out its first list of 50 candidates by Sep 19.
The Congress-NCP alliance rules Maharashtra, which goes to polls Oct 13.
In the April-May Lok Sabha elections, the Congress contested 25 of the 48 seats in the state and won 17. The NCP won only eight of the 21 seats it fought.
In the 2004 assembly polls, the Congress contested 157 of the 288 seats and NCP fielded candidates in 124 seats, leaving the rest to their allies. The NCP has 71 seats and the Congress 69 in the state assembly.
