Congress, NCP to discuss seat sharing on November 2

Nagpur: The Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will formally hold a meeting on the seat-sharing formula for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections at the residence of the leader of Opposition, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, in Mumbai on November 2, senior NCP leader and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said on Tuesday.

Mr Pawar, who was here to participate in a programme at Katol in the district, said state Congress president Ashok Chavan, state NCP chief Jayant Patil and both opposition leaders — NCP’s Dhananjay Munde and Congress’ Mr Vikhe-Patil — will discuss seat sharing for the ensuing general elections in the state in the proposed meeting.

He did not rule out the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena from joining the proposed secular alliance of Congress-NCP for the ensuing elections. “Nobody is a permanent enemy in politics. Thackeray is a force in Maharashtra and if his party endorses our ideology and policies, such an alliance can’t be ruled out,” he said.

He said that Cong-NCP want the Communists, PWP, SP, various Republican Party factions and other secular forces to join the alliance to defeat the communal BJP-Sena in Maharashtra.

Answering a question, the senior NCP leader said that the state is facing an unprecedented water scarcity, particularly in Marathwada and some parts of Vidarbha and western Maharashtra and the government should come forward to bail out the crisis-ridden farmers of these regions.