Maharashtra polls: Congress wary as NCP delays seat-sharing response

New Delhi: Congress's alliance with NCP in Maharashtra appears headed for trouble as the Sharad Pawar-led party is yet to give a "positive response" to the former's proposal for seat-sharing for the upcoming Assembly polls.

Maharashtra Congress chief Manikrao Thakre told reporters after a meeting of the party's Central Election Committee (CEC) here that they will have to prepare for all 288 seats in the state if a response from NCP does not come within a day or two.

He said Congress was racing against time to finalise nominations for the Oct. 15 polls and that time is of the essence for tying up the seat-sharing arrangement.

The CEC on Saturday held deliberations on the selection of candidates for the 174 seats in Maharashtra which the party had contested in the last Assembly polls.

Without going into the number of seats offered by Congress to NCP, Thakre said there has been no response so far to the proposal from NCP.

The talk is that Congress has offered 126 seats to NCP which, however, is pitching for as many as 144 seats.

"If NCP remains adamant on its demand for more seats, then we will have to go it alone," he said in a reply to a query.

In the last Assembly elections, Congress had contested 174 seats while NCP had put up 114 candidates.

The remarks came as the process for the filing of nominations for the Assembly polls began today with the issuance of the election notification.

Maharashtra, which has over 8.28 crore voters, has a single-phase poll to elect its 13th Assembly. Sept. 27 is the deadline for filing nominations. After scrutiny of papers, the last date for withdrawal of nominations is Oct. 1. Counting of votes will take place on Oct. 19. The current Assembly's term expires on Nov. 8.