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Congress, NCP hold talks on pre-poll tie-up

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI Dec. 25. The Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress have initiated preliminary talks on a possible pre-poll alliance, both for the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. The NCP leader, Sharad Pawar, has said that contentious issues, if any, between the two parties could be set aside and a common minimum programme worked out.

Apparently, the NCP is willing to keep the issue of the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin on the backburner. At a press conference today, Mr. Pawar said that the two parties could go ahead just like the National Democratic Alliance, which remains rooted in an agreed common minimum programme bypassing the Bharatiya Janata Party's compulsions on Ayodhya.

Mr. Pawar and Shushilkumar Shinde, Maharashtra's Congress Chief Minister, have had one round of talks. Mr. Pawar said, "it looks like the Congress is positive about fighting the polls together with us." "There seems to be unanimity on this need."

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