Cong prepares to force low seat share on NCP

“Our high command is expected to announce a decision on the alliance in two-three days,” Thakre said. “But after the delimitation,the number of seats that our party should contest has increased by nine that means the NCP’s share of seats would reduce to that extent. Moreover,the (12) independents supporting our government have agreed to contest on the Congress symbol. Six of them had defeated NCP candidates in the last election. (It means the NCP loses six more seats to the Congress). This is the reality.”

Considering that the Congress had contested 166 (out of the 288) assembly seats in 2004 and the NCP 122,Thakre’s calculations indicate that the Congress is all set to dominate the NCP for reducing the latter’s share of seats to around 100. Thakre’s calculation of Congress seats (166 seats as per 2004 formula,along with nine due to delimitation and six independents contesting on the Congress symbol) takes the party tally to 181 in the seat-sharing exercise and reduces the NCP’s share to 107.

Meanwhile,the Congress has taken note of political re-alignments on ideological grounds in the runup to the assembly polls,after the Shiv Sena-BJP broke its alliance with the NCP in the Pune Municipal Corporation. The alliance was forged two-and-a-half years ago to keep the Congress out of power in the civic body. Thakre said the Congress cadres had been asked to call off local-level alliances with the Sena-BJP.