India
Updated : Jul 24, 2014, 06:26 PM IST
As the issue of seat sharing continues to strain ties between the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Thursday said, "Congress is ready to fight solo in the upcoming state Assembly elections."
"Congress won't accept NCP's demand for 50-50 seat sharing in the assembly polls and will fight alone if a consensus is not worked out," Chavan said. "Congress will not compromise with its self respect. After keeping in mind the dignity of both the parties an alliance will be formed," he added.
However, earlier today, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) state president Sunil Tatkare had said, the decision over seat sharing in the upcoming state Assembly elections would be taken only after having a discussion with the Congress high command
The Congress-NCP coordination committee on Wednesday had a discussion over the upcoming Assembly elections. While the NCP was firm on its demand for 144 seats, the Congress party is not ready to accept their proposal of a 50-50 seat seat sharing formula.
#NCP has insisted for contesting half of the total Vidhan Sabha seats in the co-ordination committee meet - @nawabmalikmla
— NCP (@NCPspeaks) July 24, 2014
#Congress is not positive about allotting half of the total seats - @nawabmalikmla
— NCP (@NCPspeaks) July 24, 2014
A few weeks ago, stating that NCP had won twice the number of seats as compared to Congress in Maharashtra in the recent Lok Sabha polls, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has sought equal number of seats for his party with Congress in the upcoming Assembly polls. He had also reiterated that if his party didn't get half the seats, it would contest all the 288 Assembly seats in the state.
Tatkare further added, “We insist to contest 144 seats. Co-ordination committee will meet again and a positive decision will be taken. NCP chief Sharad Pawar will hold a meeting with the party leaders over the issue of seat sharing. Also there is no proposal to form an alliance with the Samajwadi Party."
In the 2009 Assembly elections, NCP had won 62 seats of 113 contested, while the Indian National Congress had won 82 seats of 170 contested seats.