The Hindu : Pawar discusses seat-sharing with Manmohan

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Saturday, Jan 17, 2004

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National

Pawar discusses seat-sharing with Manmohan

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI. JAN. 16. The Nationalist Congress Party president, Sharad Pawar, today confirmed that his party was well on its way to forming a nationwide alliance with the Congress. Mr. Pawar, who met the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, on Thursday, followed it up with an hour-long meeting with the senior Congress leader, Manmohan Singh, this afternoon where a framework for seat sharing was discussed in some detail.

"The process of a nation-wide alliance between the two parties has moved forward and we will have a tie-up at the national level," said Mr. Pawar after the meeting.

In their one-to-one meeting on Thursday, Ms. Gandhi and Mr. Pawar had agreed on the need to hasten the process of seat sharing between the two parties. The NCP chief is also reported to have made it clear that his party was in favour of an alliance at the national level.

At the 50-minute meeting today, which took place at Mr. Pawar's residence — the NCP was represented by Praful Patel and Tariq Anwar besides Mr. Pawar — the NCP leaders are reported to have apprised Dr. Singh of the party's expectations in terms of seats in Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Gujarat, Goa, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

In Bihar and Chhattisgarh, the party is asking for two seats, while in Uttar Pradesh it is willing to settle for one seat. In Bihar the party is eyeing the Kathiyar seat for Tariq Anwar and either the Madhubhani or the Darbhanga seat for Jaganath Mishra. The party has already sounded the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief, Laloo Yadav, on the two seats.

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