Deputy Chief Minister and senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar challenged its ally the Congress on Friday, saying that if it did not agree to a 50:50 seat sharing deal, his party was prepared to contest the elections on its own.
Mr Pawar, who was speaking at a meeting of party workers in Ahmednagar, added that these were his personal views. He said that all parties should contest the coming elections on their own steam in order to gauge their strength in the state.
Ever since the Congress-NCP alliance’s rout in the Lok Sabha polls, the NCP has been pushing for a greater share of the seat-sharing pie. Earlier this week, it had already demanded 144 of the 288 assembly seats. In the 2009 assembly polls, the NCP had contested 114 seats while the Congress had fought from 174 seats.
However, in the Lok Sabha polls, the NCP performed better than the Congress, winning four parliamentary seats compared to the two won by its ally. Since then, it has become more aggressive and is no longer willing to play second fiddle in the alliance.
Meanwhile, the Congress tried to play down the remarks. “The NCP has not made any such statement to the Congress. We are yet to begin our seat-sharing talks,” said Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant.
