NCP upsets Congress over seat sharing

MUMBAI: The seat-sharing tussle between the ruling allies continued on Tuesday with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) conducting interviews of potential candidates for all the 288 Assembly constituencies, instead of the 114 seats it had contested during the 2009 elections.

Its ally conducted interviews for the 174 seats it had contested during the last elections. The Congress had asked the NCP to restrict its interviews to 114 seats.

With the NCP ignoring this request, the Congress has retaliated saying it will now act in a similar manner. “We have asked party president Sonia Gandhi’s permission to go ahead with screening of candidates in all the 288 seats. We are also capable of going solo in these polls,’’ said party spokesperson Sachin Sawant.

The seat-sharing talks between the allies have been stuck for a while now. The Congress’ top brass is yet to get back to the NCP on its demand for a new seat-sharing formula.

“Ours is an independent party and we are free to conduct interviews for all the seats. It was an exercise to judge the political situation and scale the preparations in each of the constituencies. There was no question of asking the Congress for permission to conduct interviews in all 288 constituencies,” said party’s chief spokesperson Nawab Malik.

The NCP has, however, said the Congress was free to conduct interviews for all the constituencies.

The Congress feels that with this move, the NCP is not willing to compromise on its demand for 50:50 seat sharing. “We are willing to give six to eight seats, but this demand of equal sharing or giving up 15 to 20 seats, is just not feasible,’’ said a senior party leader, on condition of anonymity.

After screening more than 300 aspirants from districts in Konkan, Mumbai, Thane and Palghar on Monday, the interviews for the 58 and 46 constituencies in Marathwada and western Maharasthra respectively were held on Tuesday. The remaining constituencies from north Maharashtra and Vidarbha will be held on Wednesday.

Existing MLAS and ministers from NCP strongholds also appeared for the interviews before the parliamentary board headed by party chief Sharad Pawar. Independent MLAS that have been associated with the party too have sought the tickets from their respective constituencies. Though the NCP invited applications from the constituencies with sitting Congress MLAS, the number of applications they have received from the constituencies is comparatively less.