Congress leaders meet at 10 Janpath

Stating that seat-sharing talks with NCP have been positive, the Congress party on Monday maintained that it has discussed only 174 seats of their quota during the Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting in New Delhi.

What did they discuss?
However, Party insiders have made told dna that the CEC, which met at party president Sonia Gandhi's residence 10 Janpath for four hours, discussed all the 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra threadbare. One of the veteran leaders in AICC said that even though we have to officially maintain that we have discussed only 174 seats, we would have to prepare for all the seats.

State leades to meet tonight
When contacted, Manikrao Thackre, the state unit president of the party, told dna that we have discussed 174 seats during our last week's meeting. He said, "Today, we discussed the remaining 114 seats also and we would be holding a meeting of state Congress leaders tonight before going for a meeting with NCP leaders on Tuesday morning." When asked as to whether Congress would agree to NCP demand of 144 seats, Thakare said,

"Tomorrow's meeting is slated for discussing the same."

Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan told media persons that the talks were going on positively with NCP. He said the party has prepared its list of candidates and it would be released in a day or two.

How many seats did allies contest in 2009?
Congress had contested 174 assembly seats and NCP had contested 114 during the 2009 assembly elections in Maharashtra. NCP is pressing for 144 seats citing its success in the Lok Sabha elections where it won four seats and Congress has been able to win just two seats. Congress has rejected NCP's demand and has shown willingness to give only 124 seats to the ally.