NCP serves 1-day ultimatum on Congress to come clear on seat sharing

While a breakthrough continues to elude the Shiv Sena and BJP over a seat-sharing, the Congress and NCP too are caught up in similar woes, with the latter serving a one-day ultimatum to its senior ally to decide on its demand for 144 seats.

The NCP, which contested 114 seats in 2009, has demanded half of the state's 288 assembly seats based on its performance in the Lok Sabha elections. The NCP has four Lok Sabha seats from Maharashtra compared to just two for the Congress.

However, a senior Congress minister said they were in no mood to increase the quota of 124 seats offered to its ally as this was in consonance with the previous seat sharing agreements where the Congress, a national party, was the senior ally.

"We want to keep the alliance intact," said former Union minister and senior NCP leader Praful Patel, adding that "the Congress too needed to take two steps backwards."

Patel said a decision was extremely important as the notification for the polls had been issued and the nominations would close on September 27. "These are delicate times, so the Congress party needs to act soon," he urged.

The senior NCP leader pointed to the statements by Congress leaders that they were not willing to part with more than 124 seats for the NCP, and spurned these suggestions. He said that till date, their ally had not responded formally to their demand.

"The Congress and NCP have been talking for a month. We can wait for one day... and (then) all options are open for everybody, for them and us," said Patel, adding that "everybody has alternatives. We will speak of alternatives when we reach there."

The NCP had contested 124 seats in alliance with the Congress in 2004, but was forced to give up its claim on 10 seats in 2009 because the Congress claimed it had more Lok Sabha seats from Maharashtra.

"We did not like it then, but we abided by the dharma of the alliance to ensure a secular government in Maharashtra," said Patel, adding that NCP had relinquished its claim over the chief minister's post despite getting two more seats than the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls.

However, a senior Congress leader said the party's stance to part with 124 seats was in consonance with their status as a national party, senior partner in the alliance and previous seat-sharing agreements.

"We have made an offer, it is for them to decide," he said, adding that it would be improper to change the seat pacts so drastically. The Congress leader claimed that the NCP was not likely to sever ties with the party as anti-incumbency against them was huge.