Congress – NCP to finalise seat-sharing formula on Saturday

New Delhi, Sep 19 (ANI): The crucial meeting of the Congress Party and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders will be held here on Saturday to give the final shape to the seat sharing agreement for next month’s Maharashtra Assembly polls.

The Election Commission issued notification for the assembly polls in Maharashtra, which is to be held on October 13.

On Thursday it was reported that both parties had broadly agreed to a formula of 174: 114 seats for the Congress and the NCP respectively.

The Maharashtra Assembly has 298 constituencies.

Poll management leaders of both the Congress and the NCP met their respective party chiefs on Friday after three days of negotiations.

They had earlier held a series of discussions in Mumbai to give final shape to the seat sharing process.

If the current formula gets the stamp of approval of both parties then the NCP would settle for ten seats less than what it contested the last time.

Meanwhile the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – Shiv Sena alliance settled on a seat sharing, for 119 for the BJP and 169 seats for Shiv Sena (ANI)

Congress to decide over alliance with NCP on Sunday

New Delhi, Sep 12 (ANI): Union Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said that the decision on alliance with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly polls would be taken by Sunday.

Speaking to the media after a meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Deshmukh said the party will take a decision on the continuation of alliance by Sunday.

On Friday the Congress High Command appointed Deshmukh as the chairman of party’s poll management committee and Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde as the chairman of campaign committee for the Maharashtra polls.

Both Deshmukh and Shinde held an hour-long meeting with the party’s central leadership.

He said, Sonia Gandhi had asked him to coordinate party’s election work by taking everyone into confidence.

Earlier, the Congress Party asked the Sharad Pawar led NCP to accept new ground realities during seat sharing. (ANI)