The Hindu : Pawar denies Mahajan's claim

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 07, 2004

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National

Pawar denies Mahajan's claim

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI JAN. 6. The Nationalist Congress Party chief, Sharad Pawar, today denied the Bharatiya Janata Party's claim that the two parties had held talks on poll arrangements for the Lok Sabha elections and that they had been unsuccessful.

If no talks were held at all, how could it break down, Mr. Pawar said speaking to The Hindu over the phone.

The BJP general secretary, Pramod Mahajan, had said that there were unsuccessful discussions between the BJP and the NCP on sharing the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra in a tripartite allocation among the NCP, the BJP and the Shiv Sena after the Sena chief, Bal Thackeray, consented to an NDA tie-up with the NCP.

Mr. Pawar's denial comes at a time when the NCP is contemplating a tie-up with the NDA as "a possibility to be discussed" at the party working committee meeting on January 26 in New Delhi. Mr. Pawar said the senior party leader and MP, P.A. Sangma, had met the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, today in New Delhi "but it was to discuss other issues".

Mr. Sangma "briefed me about his talks", he added, without disclosing any details.

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