Congress-NCP seat sharing talks for LS polls on Monday

New Delhi: Seat sharing talks between Congress and NCP for the Lok Sabha elections will be held here tomorrow.

The talks are expected to be held between Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel one one hand, and Ahmed Patel and A K Antony on the other. Sources said the parties are likely to maintain the 26-22 formula under which Congress will contest 26 seats and NCP 22 in Maharashtra which has 48 seats. It is second largest state after UP (80 seats) in terms of Lok Sabha members. State Congress leaders including PCC chief Manikrao Thakre and Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan favour 19 seats for NCP. NCP is the oldest ally of Congress and the two parties have been fighting Parliament elections since 2004. They have been sharing power in Maharashtra since 1999, soon after Pawar parted ways on the issue of Sonia Gandhi`s foreign origin. The bone of contention is Kolhapur seat which was alloted to NCP but was won by an NCP rebel who has become an associate member of Congress. There is a talk of swapping of some seats in Marathwada and north Maharashtra between the two parties. "After discussions with NCP, we will announce our seat sharing formula. The meeting will take place on February 11 and February 12, after which we will issue a joint statement," Thakre had told reporters recently.