CEC clears poll tickets of several ministers in Maha

Poll tickets of several Maharashtra ministers were believed to have been cleared by the Congress Central Election Committee, which decided over 90 seats for the October 13 assembly elections.

Poll tickets of several Maharashtra ministers were believed to have been cleared by the Congress Central Election Committee, which decided over 90 seats for the October 13 assembly elections.

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The CEC, which included Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and top party leaders, met at party chief Sonia Gandhi's residence and reportedly cleared at least half of the seats that the Congress plans to contest.

Congress and NCP are fighting the elections together and there have been reports that Congress would be contesting 174 seats and NCP 114 seats.

The seat-sharing talks between the two parties have been continuing for the past two days and now differences have been narrowed down to three seats in Pune and Mumbai.

Maharashtra has a 288-member assembly and the Congress and NCP had contested together in the last elections also.

There have been many a claimant for the Congress ticket, including sons and kith and kins of many party leaders.

Rajendra alias Rao Saheb Shekhawat, the son of President Pratibha Patil, is also an aspirant. He wants party ticket from Amravati in Vidarbha region, which is currently being held by Sunil Deshmukh, a Congress leader who is Minister of State for Finance.

Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and PCC Chief Manik Rao Thackrey have been camping here for the last few days for the ticket distribution exercise as also holding talks with the NCP over seat-sharing.