After weeks of shadowboxing, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) look set to formalise their alliance for the October 13 Assembly elections with the Congress prepared to meet the NCP’s demand half way by conceding 114-115 seats to its alliance partner in the 288-member House.

The Congress had earlier offered 110 seats to the NCP as against the latter’s demand for 120.

Tomorrow, AICC in charge of Maharashtra A K Antony is scheduled to meet senior party leaders from the state including Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Ashok Chavan and Narayan Rane.

While NCP chief Sharad Pawar was initially reluctant to compromise on his party’s original demand for the repeat of the 2004 alliance model — when the Congress contested 166, the NCP 122 — he’s said to have relented as the proposed formula in 2009 is similar to the one in 2004 considering the accommodation of Independent MLAs by the two parties.

The Congress-NCP government is backed by 19 MLAs, including 12 associated with the Congress and seven with the NCP. This difference of five will be reflected in the new formula.

Union Minister and NCP leader Praful Patel said: “I am very hopeful that the alliance will be through in a day or two and all issues amicably settled.”

At a function to inaugurate the renovated office of the Mumbai Congress, Congress president Sonia Gandhi today urged party activists to keep the “Congress flag high” in the polls. The fact that she did not refer to the NCP prompted speculation but Congress sources said that she could not have “pre-empted a formal announcement.”