The Hindu : Pawar meets Sonia

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 10, 2004

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National

Pawar meets Sonia

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 9. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president, Sharad Pawar, met the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, here this evening but the talks remained "inconclusive'' as the two parties are yet to come to an agreeable equation vis-a-vis seat-sharing outside Maharashtra.

This is the first time the two leaders had a one-to-one meeting after they announced their electoral alliance here on January 14, and comes a day after the Pawar-group was recognised by the Election Commission as the real NCP and allowed the use of its reserved symbol, "clock."

While the rough spots of the seat-sharing arrangement in Maharashtra have more or less been ironed out, a final announcement is likely only after the two stitch up their alliance elsewhere.

In Maharashtra, the NCP is likely to contest 19 seats. Four seats have been set aside for as many groups of the Republican Party of India and a fifth to the Janata Dal (Secular). The remaining seats will be contested by the Congress.

With the NCP is keen on contesting elsewhere — including Goa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Assam — and the Congress yet to decide on its own candidates in these States, it may be a while before the alliance formally takes shape.

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