Cong, NCP still working on formula

With the BJP and the Shiv Sena inching towards sealing a seat-sharing deal, the Congress and the NCP are looking to shed their differences.

Sources in both the parties said a decision on the seat-sharing formula will be worked out before Thursday. A meeting between the top leaders of both the parties — Sonia Gandhi and Sharad Pawar — is likely to take place on Thursday.

While the NCP wants 144 seats, the Congress is not ready to give more than 124 seats to its ally.

Congress and NCP leaders did meet in Mumbai on Tuesday, but the talks were “inconclusive.”

Senior Congress leader Narayan Rane told reporters that the two sides have decided to meet again as “no solution could be arrived at.”

Apart from Ajit Pawar, NCP leaders Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare attended the meeting.

Intensive efforts are on to resolve the seat-sharing deadlock and salvage the 15-year-old alliance. State Congress chief Manikrao Thakre, who was present at the meeting, also said the “talks were inconclusive.”

“As the BJP and the Shiv Sena have decided to continue with their alliance, the NCP should reconsider its tactic.

“If it wants to strengthen the secular base of the State, it should continue the alliance with the Congress,” a senior Congress leader said. Congress circles have been maintaining that the issue with the alliance is not the number of seats, but the political ambitions of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.

The party has been maintaining that it is ready for negotiations on the number of seats.

“As far as the Congress party is concerned, we are fully hopeful, we want an alliance and we hope that it will be done. But finally if it does not materialise, then we are competent enough to stand on our own and contest,” party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi had said on Monday.

Daring the BJP to name its leader for Maharashtra polls, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Tuesday took a jibe at the party for seeking votes in Narendra Modi’s name when it will be the CM and not the PM who will be taking day-to-day decisions in the State.

Chavan further said the Congress “may drop” some MLAs if there is public anger against them and more opportunities would be given to youth and women.

At the same time, he made it clear that this would not be done at the cost of those who have nurtured their constituency, indicating that the upcoming candidate list of Maharashtra would be a mix of experience and youth.

Modi is expected to aggressively campaign for the October 15 polls in the State and BJP is hoping that the it will build on its Lok Sabha gains when the BJP-Sena combine bagged 42 out of 48 seats.