The fate of an alliance between the ruling Democratic Front (DF) partners continued to hang in the balance on Wednesday, with the Congress and NCP not returning to the negotiation table over the latter’s three demands and Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan stating that the “impossible” conditions put by the Sharad Pawar-led party were coming in the way of a tie-up between the two parties.
A day after the NCP made three demands, including a share of 144 seats and rotational chief ministership, the Congress made no fresh move to invite its ally for a fresh round of talks on the sharing of seats for the State Assembly polls.
Talking to reporters in his hometown of Karad where he launched his campaign for the Assembly polls, Chavan said that the Congress was finding it difficult to arrive at an electoral understanding with the NCP in the light of the “impossible” demands put up by the latter during the seat-sharing talks on Tuesday.
“The Congress is keen on continuing the alliance with the NCP to ensure that the communal forces are kept away from power. But, if impossible conditions are imposed, things become difficult to sort out. Had the talks started without any pre-conditions, we could have perhaps sorted out all the issues by now,” Chavan said.
On its part, the NCP waited for the Chief Minister to return to Mumbai for holding another round of seat-sharing talks. “On the seat-sharing front, we are in a status quo situation. We are waiting for the Chief Minister to return to Mumbai so that our leaders can hold talks with him. If we do not get a formal communication from the Congress on our demands by Thursday, we will spell out our stand on the alliance,” NCP’s spokesperson Nawab Malik told The Pioneer late on Wednesday night.
Informed sources in the Congress said that the party had bought 24 hours’ time from the NCP to take a final call on the latter’s three demands. After a considerable lull, the ruling Congress and NCP had on Tuesday morning resumed negotiations over the latter’s demand for 144 seats out of the total 288 Assembly seats.
However, the talks between the ruling DF partners remained inclusive, with the NCP demanding more number of seats than the 124 seats offered by the Congress and insisting on the Chief Minister’s post for two-and-a-half years.
Dwelling upon the hurdles coming in the way of the ruling DF partners arriving at a seat-sharing arrangement between them, senior Congress leader and the party’s campaign in-charge Narayan Rane had revealed that the NCP had made three demands during Tuesday’s seat-sharing negotiations.
“We have offered them 124 seats, but they continue to demand 144 seats. They have also demanded seats won in the 2009 polls by nine Independent MlAs who joined the NCP recently. They also want the Chief Minister’s post for two-and-a-half years. We discussed their demands, but no decision was taken in the matter,” Rane said.
Meanwhile, sources in the Congress said that large sections of the party were not in favour of allying with the NCP in the polls. “We cannot accept the NCP’s unreasonable demand for 144 seats, nor its demand for rotation of Chief Minister’s post between the two parties,” a senior State Congress leader said.
Senior NCP leader Praful 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.
Reacting to the NCP’s demand for 144 seats, the Chief Minister indirectly termed it unreasonable and said at Karad on Wednesday: “In the 2009 Assembly polls, the NCP had agreed to reduce its share by ten seats from the earlier share of 124 seats, because of the better performance put up by the Congress in the 2009 lok Sabha polls, in which my party bagged double number of seats than the NCP. The outcome reversed in the 2014 lok Sabha polls, in which the NCP won double the number of seats won by the Congress. We are telling the NCP to adopt the same formula that both the parties adopted in the 2009 Assembly polls.”