Kamat opposes alliance with NCP in Mumbai for civic polls

Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Gurudas Kamat has shot off a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, opposing alliance with NCP for the Mumbai civic polls.

Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Gurudas Kamat has shot off a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, opposing alliance with NCP for the Mumbai civic polls.

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Kamat could not be contacted, but party sources confirmed the letter.

Sources said that Kamat, a former Mumbai Congress chief, has said in the letter that deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar has announced that his party, NCP, would not align with Congress in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad as it had a strong presence there.

"Congress should not have continued talks with NCP after this statement. In Mumbai, NCP has no presence," Kamat has written, questioning the need to accommodate NCP's demand of 65 seats here.

He has also expressed opposition to state Congress leaders' willingness to cede those seats to NCP where Congress had finished second in 2007 polls.

"This will do injustice to party workers, turning them into rebels," he has said.

Kamat, who is a part of the Congress team discussing seat-sharing with NCP, is not attending the meetings since Friday.