Congress, NCP gear up for ‘friendly fights’

AFTER several rounds of discussions and similar number of disagreements, the Congress and the NCP today finally decided to strike a ‘partial’ alliance for the PMC polls. Till Wednesday evening, leaders of both the parties had ruled out the possibility of an alliance due to discord over seat sharing but on Thursday, they apparently resolved the differences.

According to Congress spokesperson Ramesh Iyer, out of the 41 panels in PMC polls, there will be ‘friendly fights’ in 15-16 panels. “This means, if NCP has fielded a strong candidate, Congress will field a weak candidate and vice versa,” an NCP leader said. Iyer said there was a dispute regarding 11 panels. “Out of these 11 panels, it has been agreed that the NCP will contest in 7 panels while the Congress candidates will be fielded in 4 panels,” he said.

A Congress leader said the agreement is that in 25 panels, both parties will work together and in 15-16 panels, there will be ‘friendly-fights.’

Iyer said party unit chief Ramesh Bagwe and youth leader Vishwajeet Kadam will discuss this seat arrangement with MPCC chief Ashok Chavan.

Meanwhile, NCP leader Ajit Pawar on Thursday announced that an alliance between the two parties has been finalised. “Our alliance is for maximum seats and there will be friendly fight for remaining seats,” Pawar said in Pimpri. Party leaders said till Wednesday evening, there was no possibility of an alliance between the two parties but things moved after Ajit Pawar and Ashok Chavan spoke to each other later in the night.