Congress, NCP announce poll pact for Maharashtra Assembly election, parties to contest 125 seats each, says Sharad Pawar

Mumbai: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress will contest 125 seats each in next month’s Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said on Monday. [caption id=“attachment_6320581” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of NCP chief Sharad Pawar. PTI[/caption] Pawar announced that the seat-sharing pact between the grand old party and his 20-year-old organisation has been finalised. As per the arrangement, 38 seats will be left for allies to contest, he tweeted. Maharashtra Assembly has 288 seats. NCP will give chance to “new faces” in the polls, Pawar said. Some seats will be exchanged with the Congress, he added. In 2014, the two parties had contested the state elections separately. NCP had then ended the 15-year alliance after the two parties had been unable to reach a seat-sharing arrangement ahead of Assembly elections. Congress had won 42 seats while the NCP had won 41 seats in 2014 polls. The BJP had emerged as the single-largest party in the state with 122 seats. The finalisation of the seat-sharing pact between the Congress and NCP comes after many high-profile exits from both the parties, more so from the Pawar-led outfit. Many of those who left have joined the BJP and a few have sought shelter with the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena.