SONIA, PAWAR CHALK OUT MAHA POLL STRATEGY

Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar met Congress’s interim president, Sonia Gandhi, to discuss the seat-sharing arrangement for the upcoming assembly polls in Maharashtra.

NEW DELHI: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar met Congress’s interim president Sonia Gandhi met on Tuesday to discuss the seat-sharing arrangement between the two parties for the assembly elections in Maharashtra that are due in Octobernovember this year.

A Congress functionary said state leaders of the two parties were so far engaged in the seatsharing talks and the two leaders wanted to send a “strong signal” that the alliance is firm and going strong in Maharashtra.

In Mumbai, Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said the Congress and NCP will fight about 123-125 seats each and leave 41 for smaller allies. He added that seats may be swapped based on consensus between the two parties.

“Talks are on with the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi [of Prakash Ambedkar], Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, and Samajwadi Party. If alliance talks work out, 41 seats would be allocated to smaller allies,” Chavan said hours after Gandhi’s meeting with Pawar.

The Congress functionary cited above said Congress has so far finalised 116 of total 288 seats it is going to contest. The NCP has zeroed in on 105. The Congress and NCP contested the 2014 assembly polls separately after sharing power for 15 years in the state. The two parties had parted ways following disagreements over seat-sharing.

The functionary said the seatsharing agreement could be announced once the two parties resolve the “sticky issues” over the remaining seats.

“There are some seats both the Congress and the NCP have staked claim to. So, we are trying to sort out the issues over those seats,” the functionary added.

The NCP initially demanded 50% or 144 seats, which the Congress agreed to but with the condition that Pawar’s party will accommodate other smaller parties under its quota.