The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is adamant on its stand to contest 22 seats out of 48 parliamentary seats in Maharashtra. On the other hand, the Congress has been favouring 29:19 seat sharing formula in the Lok Sabha election as NCP had performed badly in the last election especially in western Maharashtra. However, the NCP is unwilling it accept this decision and has already announced to contest 22 seats in the state. The NCP is ready to swap few seats with its ally. Both the parties have been involved in a tug of war with each one of them trying to outdo the other. Often NCP has criticised Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan for making slow-paced decision which resulted into policy paralysis in the state. The party will soon finalise the seat sharing agreement with Congress. It aims to win 12 to 15 seats by contesting 22 seats in the Lok Sabha election.
NCP spokeperson Nawab Malik said the Congress performance has weakened after the assembly election. He said, “The Congress party has been routed out of the power in four states in the recently concluded assembly election. The seat sharing decision will be taken by our party president Sharad Pawar. We will fight election in 22 seats in the state. There is a possibility that Aam Aadmi Party will give a tough fight to Congress in the state.”
Earlier, Maharashtra Congress chief Manikrao Thakre had said that that seat-sharing 2009 formula was based on the 2004 poll results. He also added that since Congress has improved its performance in the 2009 election the party deserved three more seats.
NCP, which is number two after the Congress party in the local self government and top in the civic bodies, is quite keen to improve its tally from eight which it won in 2009 elections. NCP state president Bhaskar Jadhav said all efforts will be made to increase party’s tally.
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has taken a decision to field new faces including youths, professionals, women in addition to ministers in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections to take on AAP and also the saffron BJP-Shiv Sena alliance.
Further, NCP chief and union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar exhorted party members to learn and effectively use social media including face book, tweeter, whatsapp in a serious bid to reach out a large number of voters especially youths.
He indicated that NCP would approach voters purely on development plank. Pawar reiterated that he won’t contest ensuing Lok Sabha elections but enter into the Rajya Sabha.
Nationalist Congress Party leader Praful Patel said that the party chief Sharad Pawar will not contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections due in the second quarter of this year.
