Congress to contest 29 assembly seats in Mumbai, NCP six

New Delhi:  With the Maharashtra Assembly elections just two months away, the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) reached an understanding for the 36 assembly seats in Mumbai on Tuesday opposed to the state's ruling BJP-Shiv Sena coalition. 

While the Congress will contest on 25 seats, NCP will contest six. The remaining five of 36 seats have been left for other political parties to contest on. 

Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party will also join hands with Congress and NCP for the forthcoming assembly elections, confirmed acting President of Mumbai Congress Eknath Gaikwad.

Earlier today, NCP chief Sharad Pawar met Congress interim chief Sonia Gandhi to discuss the seat-sharing deal in the state, party leaders said. The meeting between Sonia and Pawar, which took place in the national capital went on for around half-an-hour.

A senior Congress leader, related to the development, said that the two leaders discussed the issues of the alliance between the Congress and NCP along with regional parties.

He said that the two leaders also discussed the issue of taking the Left parties along with it in its alliance in the state. Another party leader said that the Congress and NCP are also mulling the idea to include Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) in their anti-BJP alliance in the state.