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NCP leader Praful Patel said that the Congress will be contesting for more seats at the forthcoming by-polls of Maharashtra as Nationalist Congress Party has expressed its willingness to allocate more seats to its ally. He also mentioned that the seat-sharing discussion between the two parties is progressing in a smooth way.
"The Congress contested a large number of seats last time; they will contest more seats this time. Some seats do not exist after delimitation (of constituencies). We are ready to give certain seats to Congress," he told the media in Mumbai.
Patel said: "There is no problem in arriving at a seat sharing arrangement. We will contest the elections together. We will resolve the seat sharing issue amicably in a day or two."
Maharashtra, where the polls are slated for Oct 13, currently has NCP-Congress alliance as ruling party.
In the Lok Sabha elections which took place during April-May, Congress was able to grab 17 of the 25 seats it had contested in Maharashtra, whereas NCP managed to get just 8 of the 21 seats it had contested.
In the 2004 assembly polls, the Congress contested 157 of the 288 seats and NCP fielded candidates in 127 seats, leaving the rest to their allies. The NCP has 71 seats and the Congress 69 in the state assembly.
