The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party leaders met on Tuesday morning to decide on seat sharing for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections but the talks were "inconclusive." With only four days left, to file nominations for the October 15 polls, time’s running out for the 15-year-old alliance.
Senior Congress leader Narayan Rane told reporters that the two sides have decided to meet again at 8.30 pm as "no solution could be arrived at."
The meeting was held at Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan's official residence Varsha.
The Congress has been refusing to yield to NCP's demand for equal seats, while the latter has rejected offer of 124 of the state's 288 assembly seats.
NCP leader Praful Patel and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, state party chief Sunil Tatkare and other leaders attended the meeting, to resolve the seat-sharing deadlock and salvage the alliance.
State Congress chief Manikrao Thakre, who was present at the meeting, also said the "talks were inconclusive."
NCP's core committee chaired by party chief Sharad Pawar had gone into a huddle in Mumbai on Monday where it reaffirmed that the alliance should continue but insisted on getting a larger share of the state's 288 assembly seats than 124 offered by Congress.
The NCP had contested 114 and Congress 174 in 2009 assembly elections and has been insisting on fielding candidates in half of the 288 seats, citing it had double the number of Lok Sabha seats in the state than the Congress. In the worst-ever performance for the ruling alliance, the NCP had won four Lok Sabha seats against Congress' two.
Image: NCP chief Sharad Pawar
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