Mumbai: Senior Congress leader and former
Union Minister Gurudas Kamat has shot off a letter to Congress
president Sonia Gandhi, opposing alliance with NCP for the
Mumbai civic polls.
Kamat could not be contacted, but party sources
confirmed the letter.
Sources said that Kamat, a former Mumbai Congress chief,
has said in the letter that Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar
has announced that his party, NCP, would not align with
Congress in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad as it had a strong
presence there.
"Congress should not have continued talks with NCP after
this statement. In Mumbai, NCP has no presence," Kamat has
written, questioning the need to accommodate NCP's demand of
65 seats here.
He has also expressed opposition to state Congress
leaders' willingness to cede those seats to NCP where Congress
had finished second in 2007 polls.
"This will do injustice to party workers, turning them
into rebels," he has said.
Kamat, who is a part of the Congress team discussing
seat-sharing with NCP, is not attending the meetings since
yesterday.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, January 07, 2012, 00:23