Cong willing to ally with NCP in Mumbai

The Congress is willing to forge an alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party for the city’s civic polls in January-February but it won’t decide in haste. The party has decided to hold a series of meetings of senior state and city leaders to discuss the issue over the next fortnight. HT reports.

The Congress is willing to forge an alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party for the city’s civic polls in January-February but it won’t decide in haste. The party has decided to hold a series of meetings of senior state and city leaders to discuss the issue over the next fortnight.

HT Image

The Congress and NCP’s alliance talks for the 227 seats failed five years ago. This time, the parties want to join hands but they have their own sets of conditions. They are likely to arrive at an agreement only after many rounds of deliberations. The NCP boss Sharada Pawar had asked Congress to tell him about the willingness in 15 days. This period will end soon.

When asked, state Congress chief Manikrao Thakre did not take Pawar’s deadline seriously. “Pawar saheb’s deadline is not us. But we will definitely take a call on this,” Thakre said after the party’s parliamentary board meeting. Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan also attended this meeting.

Thakre said that he would discuss the matter with Chavan first.