Congress-NCP alliance to be declared this week

Mumbai: Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will declare their alliance for different civic bodies and Zilla Parishad elections this week. Leaders from both parties will likely declare it in the city. However, announcement about the alliance will be made only after talks are finalised for Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.

After Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena declared they would contest separately, all eyes were on Congress and NCP and their decision over an electoral alliance. Sources close to the talks regarding Pune told The Asian Age that the alliance deal for the city is stuck on a key condition laid down by Congress. According to sources, Congress has asked written confirmation from NCP that the latter will not break an alliance under any post poll condition. NCP is unwilling to cede to this demand. They are divided on seat sharing too.

Apart from Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, both parties have almost finalised alliance talks for other parts of the state. Till Sunday decks were cleared for an alliance in Akola, Amaravati, Solapur, Thane and Ulhasnagar. Beed, Nanded, Latur, Jalgaon, Sindhudurg will also see an alliance between the two parties.

Maharashtra is witnessing elections in 10 municipal council and 25 Zilla Parishad bodies. Out of these, Congress and NCP have made it clear that they will not have an alliance the BMC poll.