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Seat sharing deal finalises with NCP: Congress
Congress on Saturday announced that it has clinched a seat-sharing deal with NCP in next month's Maharashtra Assembly elections.
Congress on Saturday announced that it has clinched a seat-sharing deal with NCP in next month's Maharashtra Assembly elections.
The party will announce on Sunday its list of nominees, featuring "many" new faces, Congress general secretary Margaret Alva said.
"Everything has been clinched, there are no obstacles now, but discussions are on with Left parties over adjustment of seats," she said without disclosing details of the deal.
"It will be a grand alliance in Maharashtra, we will give seats to all our allies," Alva said when asked about the seat-sharing talks with the Left parties.
NCP leader and Union Minister Praful Patel said "in principle" agreement has been reached between the two parties on seat sharing. He also declined to give details of the deal.
The Congress Central Election Committee, which met for the second consecutive day on Saturday, would continue deliberations on the allotment of seats to its candidates and finalise its list late on Saturday night.
The list will be finalised on Saturday but you will get it on Sunday," Maharashtra Congress chief Prabha Rau said.
Asked whether the list would have new faces, Rau and Alva said that it would contain many new faces.
Both, however, steered clear of queries over denial of tickets to any sitting MLAs.
"The Congress has 74 MLAs (in the outgoing assembly), and we have to nominate nearly 100-odd candidates," Alva said.
