NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Rahul Gandhi
Maharashtra Polls: Congress and Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have agreed upon seat-sharing formula for upcoming Maharashtra Legislative Assembly polls. Both parties will fight on 125 seats each. Maharashtra Legislative Assembly has 288 seats. Congress-NCP have spared 38 seats for other parties in the coalition. Samajwadi Party, which is part of Congress-NCP combine will contest 7 seats.
Congress and Nationalist Congress Party had fought 2014 Maharashtra elections independently. Congress had fielded candidates on 287 seats while NCP had fielded candidates in 278 constituencies.
The strike rate was not that great for both the parties as Congress registered a victory on 42 seats while NCP was able to bag 41 seats. Deposits of 152 and 158 candidates of Congress and NCP were confiscated.
Upcoming assembly elections are an uphill task for Congress-NCP combine as both the parties are on the backfoot. Former Maharashtra CM and Congress strongman Ashok Chavan lost his seat in Lok Sabha elections 2019. While Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party has seen big-ticket defections in recent days.
It is widely believed that if you want to hold Maharashtra, you have to checkmate the Pawar family. But going by recent developments, it can be said that NCP is facing trouble in its bastion of Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur and Pune. Descendents of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj joined BJP recently. The family commands respec in NCP's strongholds in Maharashtra.
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