Praful Patel meets Pawar to iron out seat sharing differences

NCP leader Praful Patel had a meeting with party chief Sharad Pawar on Monday in the backdrop of continuing differences with Congress on seat sharing for the October 13 Maharashtra Assembly polls.

NCP leader Praful Patel had a meeting with party chief Sharad Pawar on Monday in the backdrop of continuing differences with Congress on seat sharing for the October 13 Maharashtra Assembly polls.

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Reports have said differences have been narrowed down to a few constituencies in Pune and Mumbai and the non-completion of the exercise was delaying a formal announcement of the alliance, which is expected by Tuesday.

While there has been no official word, Congress is likely to contest 174 and NCP 114 seats in the 288-member Assembly.

The Congress Central Election Committee which is headed by party chief Sonia Gandhi and has Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a member, is believed to have cleared 140 to 150 candidates so far including Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and several of his cabinet colleagues.

A meeting of the Congress Screening Committee for Maharashtra was also held on Monday apparently to scrutinise the candidates for the remaining seats.