Sweetens earlier offer of 124 seats with ten more
With the crucial round of seat-sharing negotiations between their leaders scheduled for Tuesday morning, the ruling Congress and NCP on Monday evening continued to nurse hopes of hammering out an electoral alliance between them for the October 15 Maharashtra Assembly polls. The Congress has agreed to give ten more seats to the NCP over the previous offer of 124.
While NCP leader Praful Patel said in Mumbai that the two sides would hold a final round of talks on Tuesday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said in Delhi that the Congress was keen on an alliance with the NCP, but it will keep other options open.
Chavan also said the Congress was willing to return the ten seats it took from the NCP in 2004. “We are willing to return the ten seats that we took. We are willing to go with the 2004 scenario that was derived from the relative strength of the two parties in 1999. The point is every single party that is going into polls, will have to... If there is no alliance, we will have to go to election (alone). There is no question of being confident or otherwise. We are in for winning and we would like to fight maximum number of seats that the situation permits,” Chavan said.
At the NCP Core Committee meeting in Mumbai, party president Sharad Pawar confabulated with senior party colleagues on the party’s strategy for the State Assembly polls and decided to proceed with an open mind for Tuesday’s seat-sharing negotiations with the Congress.
Talking to reporters after the party’s Core Committee meeting here, Praful Patel said: “Ahead of the end of the deadline set by us for the Congress for initiation of seat-sharing talks, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan called me last night. I spoke to senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel later in the night. This morning, Chavan called me once again. During the course of our talk, the Congress leaders suggested that we meet and have talks on the seat-sharing proposals of both the parties”.
“During our core group meeting, I briefed Pawarji and other members about the Congress’ invitation for talks. The Core Committee decided to go ahead and have one more round of seat-sharing talks with the Congress,” Patel said.
“Since the Congress leaders are away in New Delhi for a meeting with their Central leaders, we are unable to hold the talks with them today. All of us — our State party president Sunil Tatkare, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, senior party leader Chhagan Bhujbal and I — will meet the State Congress leaders at 10 am on Tuesday for deliberating on sharing of seats for the Assembly polls,” Patel said.
Patel said that at Tuesday’s meeting, his party leaders would try to bring about convergence of different views in the two parties on the sharing of seats for the Assembly polls.
“As far as my party’s stand is concerned, it has not changed. We do not want to discuss the situation that prevailed in the 2004 polls when we had been allotted 124 seats. Instead, we would like to discuss with the Congress our recent demand for 144 out of total 288 seats. At tomorrow’s meeting, we will try to prevail upon the Congress to take a positive stand on our recent demand so that both the parties can evolve a consensus on the issue of sharing of seats for the October 15 Assembly polls,” he said.
“We have always leaned towards keeping the communal forces away from power in the State. It is in this context, we would like to continue our alliance with the Congress. That’s why we want the Congress to adopt a constructive approach in tomorrow’s talks. let me clarify we did not give any ultimatum to the Congress. It is the Election Commission that has given the ultimatum. The poll process has already started and the deadline for filing of nominations is September 27,” Patel said.
Patel had rejected the Congress’ reported offer of 124 seats and given a 24-hour ultimatum to his party’s ally to improve its seat offer and decide on the seat-sharing formula for the October 15 Maharashtra Assembly polls.
“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 number of seats,” Patel had said.
In Delhi, the Congress prepared its ground to contest all the 288 Assembly seats if the need arose. In the Central Election Committee meeting, the party discussed the prospect of going alone if the proposed talk with the NCP on Tuesday failed to resolve the deadlock. While on records, party leaders did not disclose making any fresh offer to the NCP, sources said the Congress might be ready to give some more seats than 124 it offered earlier.
“We have held discussions on all seats since I am responsible only for seats and not alliance,” said Madhusudan Mistry, AICC general secretary in-charge of the CEC after a meeting of the top election body chaired by party President Sonia Gandhi. Before the CEC meet, senior Maharashtra Congress leaders met at the residence of AICC’s Screening Committee Chairman for Maharashtra, Mallikarjun Kharge.
Mistry parried questions on the future of the alliance with the NCP, which has so far not budged from its demand of 144 of the 288 seats in Maharashtra Assembly on equal share basis.
“Chief Minister, PCC president, the general secretary in-charge and the high command will sit together and decide what has to be done with the alliance. I have no idea,” Mistry said when asked whether the Congress-NCP alliance will continue or not.
AICC spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi at the routine briefings on Monday expressed confidence that the two parties will have an alliance. “I certainly do not think that it will be a four-cornered contest. At the best it will be three-cornered because we are going to have an alliance,” he said.