Pune: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has managed to strike an alliance with the Congress at the last minute for the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections.
A total of 162 corporators have to be elected from 41 panels for the new general body in the upcoming PMC polls. Of these, four candidates each would be elected from 39 panels, and three candidates from the remaining two panels.
Senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar said the two parties would jointly contest nearly 100 seats, and in about 15-16 panels (around 60 seats), there would be ‘friendly fights’ between the two parties.
This means that in places where the NCP fields a ‘strong’ candidate, the Congress will place a ‘weak’ candidate and vice-versa.
However, party insiders from both sides said there is confusion over the alliance and the modalities are yet to be finalised. They also said that the two parties are facing a conflict over 11 panels.
Congress leader Ramesh Iyer said, “It has been settled that the NCP will contest on seven of these supposedly disputed panels, while the Congress will fight on the remaining four. There is no problem now.”
Leaders from both sides, until Thursday, had said that an alliance is unlikely owing to differences over seat-sharing.
The talks picked up after Wednesday night following a conversation between Mr. Pawar and Congress State President Ashok Chavan.
However, an alliance for the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) polls is yet to be decided.
