)
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) President Sharad Pawar has convened a meeting of his party leaders and ministers from Maharashtra on Wednesday to discuss preparations for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections.
NCP has unilaterally declared that it would contest 22 seats while 26 seats would be contested by its partner, the Congress, of the 48 seats in Maharashtra. However, the Congress is not in agreement with the NCP as it wants at least 29 seats saying that the seat sharing formula will be closed at the level of the Congress party high command.
State NCP chief Bhaskar Jadhav told Business Standard: "Our party chief will review preparations for the Lok Sabha elections at Wednesday's meeting."
Another NCP leader said that the party, which had won eight of the 22 seats from its quota during the 2009 elections, is keen to increase its tally to 15. "We will focus on reaching out to the maximum voters and accommodate all sections into the party fold. At Wednesday's meeting, responsibilities will be fixed on specific leaders constituency wise and they will be made accountable," he noted.
