NEW DELHI, 20 September 2004 — Congress party and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Sharad Pawar have agreed on seat-sharing formula during a meeting between Sonia Gandhi and Pawar for Maharashtra Assembly elections.
As per their understanding, the NCP got 127 seats while the Congress clinched 161 seats. Congress is likely to spare 20 odd seats to include like minded parties including the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) for Oct. 13 polls.
Meanwhile, Congress is busy in confabulations with parties like CPI, CPM, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and some other parties to form a “grand alliance” against the BJP-Shiv Sena combine in the state.
Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde would be contesting from south Sholapur seat which he won in a by-election two years back. Sources said that most of the sitting members of the Congress-NCP have been renominated in order to reduce the chances of rebellion.
The NCP yesterday announced its first list of candidates for 104 constituencies of the state. The NCP is likely to announce the remaining names today. The Congress has not announced the list for even the seats over which NCP has no dispute.
Among those on the NCP list are former Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal contesting from the Yewla constituency, Sunil Tatkare from Mangaon and Bhujbal’s son Pankaj Mazgaon in central Bombay.
However, it may give up a few seats to smaller parties that are part of the government at present, according to sources.
Two sitting legislators have been dropped while 50 new faces have been brought in. Five women also figure in the list.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party announced the second list of 15 candidates featuring nine new faces dropping two sitting legislators.
However, Rekhatai Khedkar from Chikli, Mohan Mate from Nagpur South and Sadashiv Lokhande from Karjat are among the prominent legislators retained.
The BJP is contesting 117 seats and still has to announce candidates for 16 seats.
