New Delhi, July 25 (IANS): The Congress has proposed the idea of a 60:40 seat-sharing formula to the Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra for the coming Assembly election in the state, a senior party leader said here on Thursday.
Maharashtra Congress Working President Nitin Raut told IANS, "The seat-sharing talks between the Congress and the NCP are currently underway. The Congress has proposed the 60:40 seat sharing formula in the state and I think it will be accepted by the NCP."
He said the party is holding alliance talks with the NCP and with other small parties in the state and in next two to three days the talks of seat-sharing will be finalised.
Raut, a former three-term MLA from North Nagpur is one of the five working presidents of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee under Balasaheb Thorat. He was given the post of Working President on July 13.
Raut is also the Chairman of All India Congress Committee's Scheduled Castes department.
To a question about the NCP demanding 50:50 seat formula, Raut replied, "Even if the ratio of 50:50 is there we will discuss the seats on which we can win and on which the NCP can win. And I think by this week the seat-sharing formula will be clear."
Raut said that once the seat-sharing formula is decided the party will fight with full force in the Assembly election to dethrone the BJP-Shiv Sena government in the state.
Referring to the dismal performance of the party in the Lok Sabha election, the Congress leader said, "The situation in Assembly and the Lok Sabha elections are completely different."
"In Assembly elections people vote for the local issues. In Maharashtra, today the cases of farmers' suicides have gone up in last five years, students are not getting scholarships, the backlog in services are not being filled, the backward class officers are not getting promotions in their services, thus people are angry with the BJP and the Shiv Sena and thus we believe that the people will vote for the Congress."
In the 2014 election, the BJP came to power by winning 122 seats in the 288-member Assembly. BJP's ally Shiv Sena won 62 seats. The Congress and the NCP bagged 42 and 41 seats, respectively.
The Assembly election in Maharashtra is due in September-October this year. The Congress and the NCP are looking for a comeback in the state.
