Congress-NCP Meet to Identify Constituencies

Amid reports that the Sharad Pawar-led NCP has conceded considerable political ground to save its alliance with the Congress, leaders of the two parties met for second round talks to work out the fine print of the seat sharing settlement on Wednesday.

The partners are in discussions to renew their 10 year old pact ahead of the October 13 Assembly elections in Maharashtra.

While some media organizations suggest that the first round talks held Tuesday remained inconclusive, others said that the NCP has agreed to contest 110-115 of the total 288 seats in the assembly, leaving the Congress with 173-178 segments to field its nominees.

Back in 2004, the Congress had contested 165 segments and the NCP 123.

Leaders from the two parties are meeting in Mumbai to work out the identification of seats to be contested by either of the partners.