Congress-NCP seat-sharing talks remain inconclusive

A three-hour-long meeting to finalise the seat-sharing formula between Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections remained inconclusive late on Tuesday night, a Congress leader said.

Another meeting is slated on Wednesday to finalise the seat-sharing arrangements, the leader said.

This was the first and much-anticipated official round of talks between the two parties, held at 'Varsha', the official residence of Chief Minister Ashok Chavan.

Earlier, state Congress chief Manikrao Thakre held a meeting with A.K. Antony, the Congress general secretary in-charge of the state to discuss the modalities for the talks with the NCP.

NCP circles claimed that the two parties shall contest the Oct 13 elections jointly. The Congress-NCP alliance Democratic Front is ruling Maharashtra since 1999 and is hoping to do a hat-trick.

In the 2004 assembly polls, the Congress contested 157 of the 288 seats and the NCP fought 127 seats, leaving the rest to their allies. The NCP won 71 seats while the Congress got 69.

In the April-May Lok Sabha elections, the Congress contested 25 of the 48 seats in the state and won 17, while the NCP got only eight of the 21 seats it contested.

Several Congress leaders, including Heavy Industries Minister and former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh have been advocating that the party should go it alone in the assembly elections.