No problem in formalising seat-sharing with Congress for 2019 polls, says Sharad Pawar

NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday said his party and the Congress have decided to fight the 2019 polls as allies and there would be no problem in formalising seat-sharing with the Grand Old Party in Maharashtra.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar. Photo: PTI

MUMBAI: NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday said his party and the Congress have decided to fight the 2019 polls as allies and there would be no problem in formalising seat-sharing with the Grand Old Party in Maharashtra. The NCP was a constituent in the erstwhile Congress-led UPA governments in Centre and Maharashtra, before both the parties had an acrimonious break-up ahead of the 2014 assembly elections. "There will be no problem in seat-sharing with the Congress, as both the parties have decided to contest the 2019 polls together in an alliance," Pawar said while addressing party workers here. On the occasion, NCP leader Sachin Ahir was re-elected as president of the Mumbai unit of the party. Pawar said the Congress had discussed the prospects of forging a pre-poll alliance withlike-minded partiesand it has been decided that the upcoming polls will be fought together. Speaking about party leader Chhagan Bhujbal, who was discharged from a city hospital today after he was granted bail by the Bombay High Court in a money laundering case after two years of incarceration, the NCP chief said he was hopeful of Bhujbal's acquittal. "The first step of gettingbail (for Bhujbal) is accomplished successfully. I am confident that the second step of (Bhujbal's) acquittal would also be successful," he said. In the 288-member Maharashtra House, the Congress and the NCP each has 41 MLAs.