New Delhi, Mar 23(PTI) After it failed to strike pre-poll deals with allies in UP and Bihar, Congress today managed to cobble up a seat-sharing pact in Maharashtra with NCP under which it will field 26 candidates and leave 22 seats for the Sharad Pawar-led party in the Lok Sabha elections.
Ending days of suspense, the seat-sharing was announced at a joint press conference by Congress leader A K Antony and NCP leaders Praful Patel and D P Tripathi. It saw the NCP getting one seat more than in the previous Lok Sabha poll.
The arrangement has been clinched at a time when Congress has failed to strike seat-sharing deals in key states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh where the UPA appeared to have suffered major cracks.
This is the second formal alliance of Congress with a UPA partner after the one with JMM in Jharkhand. Both Congress and NCP have been together in Lok Sabha polls since 2004 and are jointly in power in Maharashtra for the last 10 years.
Amid projections of closeness of Pawar with the Third Front, Patel said, "We are in an alliance with Congress. We shall stand by the alliance and support fully all the candidates. There is not to have any other understanding." Patel also dismissed questions on the issue of Pawar as Prime Minister noting that his party chief already clarified that NCP was a small party and "there is no need of words-splitting." PTI
Ending days of suspense, the seat-sharing was announced at a joint press conference by Congress leader A K Antony and NCP leaders Praful Patel and D P Tripathi. It saw the NCP getting one seat more than in the previous Lok Sabha poll.
The arrangement has been clinched at a time when Congress has failed to strike seat-sharing deals in key states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh where the UPA appeared to have suffered major cracks.
This is the second formal alliance of Congress with a UPA partner after the one with JMM in Jharkhand. Both Congress and NCP have been together in Lok Sabha polls since 2004 and are jointly in power in Maharashtra for the last 10 years.
Amid projections of closeness of Pawar with the Third Front, Patel said, "We are in an alliance with Congress. We shall stand by the alliance and support fully all the candidates. There is not to have any other understanding." Patel also dismissed questions on the issue of Pawar as Prime Minister noting that his party chief already clarified that NCP was a small party and "there is no need of words-splitting." PTI
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