After days of lull, the ruling Congress and NCP on Tuesday morning resumed negotiations over the latter’s demand for 144 seats out of total 288 Assembly seats.
However, the talks between the ruling DF partners remained inconclusive, with the NCP demanding more than 124 seats offered by the Congress and insisting on the Chief Minister’s post for a period of three years.
Though the DF leaders were scheduled to hold second round of talks later in the night, the negotiations did not happen. “The Congress is yet to invite us for the second round of seat-sharing negotiations,” a senior NCP leader said on Tuesday night.
Talking to mediapersons after the first round of talks he and his colleagues had with their counterparts in the Congress, senior NCP leader Praful Patel said, “Our meeting with the Congress leadership was inconclusive, and we will meet again. We placed the same demand (for 144 seats) that we have publicly spoken about”.
Senior NCP leaders later in the day held a two-hour meeting with NCP chief Sharad Pawar at his Silver Oak residence on Peddar Road in South Mumbai.
In the first round of talks held with the Congress leaders at Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan’s official residence, Varsha in Malabar Hill in South Mumbai at 10 am, the NCP was represented by Patel, State NCP chief Sunil Tatkare, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, and senior leader Chhagan Bhujbal.
Sources in the DF said that the two parties might make a formal announcement about the sharing of seats for the October 15 State Assembly polls, on Wednesday.
However, as Chavan will not be available in Mumbai on Wednesday, the deadlock between the two parties is unlikely to be resolved.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader and party’s campaign in-charge Narayan Rane — while talking to the media at Nashik in north Maharashtra — revealed that the NCP had made three demands during Tuesday’s seat-sharing negotiations.
“The Congress’ horse is stuck on 144 seats. We have offered them 124 seats, but they continue to demand 144 seats.
They have also demanded seats won in the 2009 polls by independent nine Independent MlAs who joined the NCP recently. They also want the Chief Minister’s post for two and half years. We discussed their demands, but no decision was taken in the matter,” Rane said.
Sources said that the State Congress leaders were in the process of seeking the views of their party’s central leadership on the NCP’s demands. According to sources, the NCP might settle down to lesser number of seats than the 144 seats it has been demanding.
Patel, it may be recalled, had on Saturday rejected the Congress’ reported offer of 124 seats and given a 24-hour ultimatum to his party ruling ally to improve its seat offer and decide on the seat-sharing formula for the October 15 Maharashtra Assembly polls.
In response to the Congress’ offer of 124 seats, Patel had said that the reported offer of 124 seats could in no way be construed as a scaled-up offer.
“Through its offer of 124 seats, the Congress cannot say that it is offering us more number of seats, because we had 124 seats in our quota in the 2004 polls. The NCP has been patient and understanding in its approach with the Congress all through, so much so that in 2004 polls, we had offered the chief minister’s post to the Congress despite our winning 72 seats, two seats more than the number of seats bagged by our ally. In the 2009 polls, we - in the overall interest of continuing the alliance - had agreed to accept lesser of number of seats,” Patel had said.
In the 2009 polls, the Congress had contested 170 seats and won 82 seats in the 2009 polls, while the NCP had contested 113 seats and bagged 62 seats.
On the NCP’s demand for sharing of 288 equally with the Congress, Patel had said: “In the 2014 lok Sabha polls, we won more number of seats than the Congress (the NCP won four seats as against two seats bagged by the Congress). Even the Assembly-wise analysis of lok Sabha polls results shows that we performed better than the Congress. This is not the first time that we are telling the Congress that we want 144 seats this time around. Ever since the talks began between the both parties more than a month ago, we have been telling the Congress than we would like a seat share of 144 seats.”