Mumbai: The Congress has introduced the maxim of ‘winnability’ in ongoing talks with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for arriving at a seat-sharing formula for the Lok Sabha elections.
Confirming this, State Congress president Ashok Chavan said, “Talks are near finalised. Of the 48 Lok Sabha constituencies, we have crystallised 40 for the NCP. The last few remaining constituencies will be finalised soon.”
Mr. Chavan said on November 15, 16, and 17, the Congress will hold a review meeting in Mumbai, which will be attended by senior party leader M. Kharge. “After that we shall have a meeting once again with the NCP on November 19, where we will take a final call on seat-sharing, and even resort to exchanging any particular constituencies. There is no pending dispute with the NCP as winnability has been made the main focus of discussions.”
The Congress, for instance, is keen to field the son of Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil from Ahmednagar, currently held by the NCP.
Similarly, from Jalna too, the Congress is keen to field a candidate. Therefore, the NCP will seek other parliamentary seats in lieu of relinquishing these two constituencies that they hold now.
A senior Congress leader said, “We have found consensus with the NCP for the Aurangabad, Osmanabad, and Solapur constituencies. We have engaged in logical discussions where the winnability factor has prevailed for finalising majority seats.”
The leader also said, “There are many parliamentary constituencies that will be given to independent political dispensations like Raju Shetty’s party in Kolhapur or Hitendra Thakur-led Bahujan Vikas Aghadi in Virar, and the Peasants and Workers Party, and the Republican Party of India, from the Congress quota. There are nearly 12 such seats that would go out from our (Congress) quota.”
