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The ruling Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Thursday toughened their stand on seat-sharing for the upcoming Assembly elections in Maharashtra. The otherwise soft-spoken Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithiviraj Chavan, who will lead the Congress in the state election, on Thursday declared NCP must "respect" the Congress if it wants the alliance to continue.
“We will not compromise with our self-respect. If we don't get respect, we will not go in for an alliance. We will then fight on our own,” said Chavan.
On the other hand, NCP, which outsmart Congress by winning four seats in the Lok Sabha election, insisted that it should get 144 of the total 288 assembly seats. Sharad Pawar led NCP also indicated that it will go solo if Congress remains admant. Talks on sharing seats for the assembly election due in October have run into rough weather with NCP refusing to play junior partner anymore.
"144 seats or we can contest alone too," said Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, who is NCP chief Sharad Pawar's nephew, recently. NCP's state unit president Sunil Tatkare echoed Ajit Pawar's views saying that it was gearing up to contest all 288 seats. Sharad Pawar has convened meeting with its ministers and senior leaders on Saturday to take a call on whether or not to break its alliance with Congress and thereby work out its strategy for assembly election.
The Congress has outrightly rejected NCP's demand and decided not to succumb to NCP's pressure. Congress insiders believe that Chavan's riposte is meant to be a serious warning.
Talks between Congress & NCP held in Mumbai on Wednesday night ended in both parties sticking to their respective stands.
NCP spokesman Nawab Malik in his response to Chavan's warning said ''"It is for the Congress to decide what they want to do. We are clear that the Congress is weak just now and if they contest 174 seats, then it will be to the BJP-Shiv Sena's advantage. Do they want that?"
Congress party, in a bid avoid any rebellion within, has announced that its first list of candidates for the assembly elections will be released by August 7. The party also indicated that the announcement of its candidates will be done with our without the alliance with NCP.
