The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Thursday parted ways with its 15-year-old alliance partner Congress on Thursday.

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Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar put the blame of the split over incumbent chief minister Prithviraj Chavan. "I had worked with chief ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde and Ashok Chavan. There used to be a little bit of difference over seats with them too, but in the end, there alliance prevailed. However, the current chief minister was not forthcoming. Therefore, we decided to go it solo this time. I am sure that people will bless us with their votes and give us an opportunity to serve them again," said Pawar. He added that he would submit his resignation as deputy CM to the governor.

State NCP president Sunil Tatkare said: "We do not want the secular votes to be divided. In the recent Zilla Parished elections, most of the elected presidents belonged to NCP, but still we were inclined to keep the alliance. But without consulting us, they declared their candidates' list. Earlier, we decided that the inducted independents and legislators from other parties will be given tickets irrespective of quota. But Congress violated the agreement.

So, we have no option but to fight the polls separately."

Praful Patel, senior NCP leader, said that it was party president Sharad Pawar who first took the initiative of talks on seat sharing by meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi a month ago. "After that there was no response from the Congress. Two days back, we had meeting with the CM and Congress state president Manikrao Thakre. We gave the proposal of 144 seats and sharing of chief ministers post for 2.5 years. We waited for their response, but rather than giving us counter proposal, they declared their list. We always worked as a responsible ally with the Congress. By contesting solo, NCP will emerge as the single largest party in the multiple corner fights," said Patel.