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Pawar to hold meeting today on NCP’s plans for Karnataka elections
NCP chief Sharad Pawar has called for a meeting of its party leaders on Saturday to finalise the plans for the Karnataka assembly elections, even as some of the party’s leaders said they are likely to contest in 40 to 45 seats.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has called for a meeting of its party leaders on Saturday to finalise the plans for the Karnataka assembly elections, even as some of the party’s leaders said they are likely to contest in 40 to 45 seats.
There are 224 seats in the Karnataka assembly.
“We are meeting in Mumbai on Saturday to finalise our plans for the Karnataka elections,” Pawar, who was in Delhi, told reporters on Friday.
The NCP president’s announcement of plans for Karnataka came a day after he met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi, in the national capital, and discussed the need to forge opposition unity to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Lok Sabha elections next year.
According to an NCP functionary, who did not wish to be named, “Leaders from the party’s Karnataka unit have also been invited for Saturday’s meeting”.
A second functionary said “the party is likely to contest in 40 to 45 seats in Karnataka”.
The party’s meeting on Saturday to decide on contesting the Karnataka polls also comes against the backdrop of it losing its national party status.
Following the removal of the tag by the Election Commission earlier this week, the NCP said it will contest all the elections to get it restored.
“As we have decided to fight all the upcoming elections, we also seek to contest as many seats as we can to get the desired number of seats and voting percentage in other states and restore our national status,” a second functionary said, also seeking anonymity.
Elections in the state are scheduled to be held on May 10. The results will be declared on May 13.
