Ahead of a final round of seat-sharing talks on Tuesday evening, the NCP demanded that the chief ministership should be shared for two and a half years each if Congress-NCP combine returns to power.
Earlier in the day Congress and NCP leaders met to decide on seat sharing for Maharashtra Assembly elections but the talks were "inconclusive."
Senior Congress leader Narayan Rane told reporters that the two sides decided to meet again at 8:30 pm as "no solution could be arrived at." The meeting was held at chief minister Prithviraj Chavan's official residence - Varsha.
The Congress has been refusing to yield to NCP's demand for 144 seats each, while the latter has rejected an offer of 124 of the state's 288 Assembly seats.
NCP leader Praful Patel and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, state party chief Sunil Tatkare and other leaders attended the meeting, to resolve the seat-sharing deadlock and salvage the 15-year-old alliance.
State Congress chief Manikrao Thakre, who was present at the meeting, also said the "talks were inconclusive."
NCP's core committee chaired by party chief Sharad Pawar had gone into a huddle on Monday where it reaffirmed that the alliance should continue but insisted on getting a larger share of the state's 288 Assembly seats than the 124 offered by Congress.
NCP had contested 114 and Congress 174 in the 2009 Assembly elections and has been insisting on fielding candidates in half of the 288 seats, citing it had double the number of Lok Sabha seats in the state than Congress. In the worst-ever performance for the ruling alliance, NCP had won 4 Lok Sabha seats against Congress' 2.
NCP's core committee chaired by party chief Sharad Pawar had gone into a huddle on Monday where it reaffirmed that the alliance should continue but insisted on getting a larger share of the state's 288 Assembly seats than the 124 offered by Congress.
NCP had contested 114 and Congress 174 in the 2009 Assembly elections and has been insisting on fielding candidates in half of the 288 seats, citing it had double the number of Lok Sabha seats in the state than Congress. In the worst-ever performance for the ruling alliance, NCP had won 4 Lok Sabha seats against Congress' 2.