Maharashtra Assembly polls 2014: Sharad Pawar confirms NCP-Congress alliance

Maharashtra Assembly polls 2014: Sharad Pawar confirms NCP-Congress alliance

A day after Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan announced the alliance of Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for the upcoming Assembly Elections in the state, Sharad Pawar, president of the NCP gave his consent to it, reports said on Saturday.

“NCP and Congress, which form the ruling Democratic Front, have historically contested elections together in a seat-sharing arrangement,” Pawar told reporters. According to reports, Pawar met NCP ministers today to review the party’s preparations for the Assembly elections due in October. “Our performance is better than that of the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections. There should be definitely a rethink on the seat-sharing formula for the assembly elections,” Pawar told reporters.

Yesterday, Chavan had said his endeavour would be to win maximum seats in the state. "I met the party leadership in the last two days and requested them to put to rest uncertainty over the leadership issue in the interest of the party's (poll) prospects. We also discussed poll preparedness and strategy," he told reporters.

On Thursday, the party high command declared that Chavan will continue in his post and lead Congress in the elections, ending the suspense over the issue of change of leadership in the state since the party's debacle in the Lok Sabha polls. Asked about alliance partner NCP's demand of equal seat- sharing in the 288-member Assembly, Chavan had said such issues are not discussed in front of the media.

However, Chavan was skeptical whether a US Presidential style campaign done by BJP in the Lok Sabha elections would be replicated in the Maharashtra polls. In 2009, out of total 288 Assembly seats, NCP and Congress contested on 114 and 174 seats respectively. The NCP won 62 seats, while Congress won 82 seats.

source:zeenews

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