Acceptable,

Sharad Pawar wants 20 seats more than what they got in 2009

MUMBAI: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), on Wednesday, told the Congress that the old seatsharing formula for Assembly polls in Maharashtra, where the latter got the lion’s share will not be acceptable.

While the top brass of both the parties — Congress’ Ahmed Patel and AK Antony and NCP’S Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel —met at Pawar’s residence in New Delhi, the seat-sharing formula could not be finalised.

“In the wake of the change in scenario, we have told the Congress that the old seat-sharing formula cannot be applicable. We want equal distribution of seats. They will get back to us on the issue,” said Patel.

The Congress leaders are expected to respond to the demand after talking to party president Sonia Gandhi. The alliance is likely to hold another meeting this week to decide the seat-sharing formula.

According to sources, the NCP is looking at the best possible negotiation and has set its sights on 130 to 135 seats. In the 2009 polls, the Congress had contested 174 seats, while the NCP had contested 114 seats. The seat-sharing formula for 2009 polls was tweaked after Congress’ performance in the Lok Sabha polls that year surpassed the NCP’S tally. In the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, both the parties had a poor show, but the NCP won 4 seats and the Congress managed to retain only 2.

While NCP’S leaders from the state want equal distribution of seats, Pawar had, earlier this week, indicated that he was willing to step down from the demand. It is learnt that the NCP now wants the Congress, too, to be flexible.

“We want equal number of seats, but the party chief has indicated that we can be a bit flexible. Let the Congress decide the new formula. We want at least 20 seats more,” said a senior state leader, on condition of anonymity.