Congress, NCP to contest 125 seats each in Maha poll

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, September 16

The Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will contest 125 seats each in the Maharashtra Assembly leaving 38 seats for their allies, NCP chief Sharad Pawar announced at a press conference in Nashik today.

Without mentioning names, the Maratha strongman indicated that parties which are part of other fronts are likely to tie-up with the Congress-NCP combine. “The leaders of the Congress and NCP will decide on exchanging 15 to 20 seats among themselves,” Pawar said.

With several senior leaders of the NCP leaving for BJP and Shiv Sena, the NCP chieftain said several new faces would be fielded in the forthcoming Assembly elections. “We will give a chance to several new candidates to prove themselves,” Pawar said.

Regarding the recent spate of defections from the NCP, he accused the BJP of luring his party leaders. “I have been in the opposition for 24 years, but others are in a hurry,” he added.

The Congress and NCP had broken their 15-year-old alliance ahead of the 2014 Assembly elections, which paved the way for the BJP and Shiv Sena to contest on their own as well. While the Congress won 42 seats, the NCP bagged 41. The BJP emerged as the single largest party with 122 seats.

Meanwhile, both Congress and NCP indicated that they would be fielding all their senior leaders in the Assembly elections.

Former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said he was keen on contesting from the South Karad Assembly from where he won by a margin of more than 14,000 votes in 2014. 

Pawar hits out at those who quit NCP  

Mumbai: NCP chief Sharad Pawar has termed those who left his party to join the ruling BJP as "cowards", and said people would show the deserters their place in the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections. In a setback for the NCP, several senior party leaders recently joined the BJP and Shiv Sena. TNS