Seat sharing talks with NCP in next few days: Congress

Congress will begin seat sharing discussions with NCP in Maharashtra in the next few days for the Lok Sabha polls, said party's state unit chief Manikrao Thakre. He further added that swapping of seats is also likely.

"Congress is expected to stake claim over Hingoli, Amravati, Kolhapur and Osmanabad parliamentary seats held by NCP while the latter is likely to demand seats like Raigad and Jalna (held by Congress)," party sources said.

NCP led by Sharad Pawar, who parted ways with Congress in 1999 on the foreign origin issue of Sonia Gandhi, is sharing power with her party in Maharashtra for over 14 years and has been a part of the UPA at the Centre since 2004.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has said it will field candidates on at least 22 seats in the state. The tussle between the parties on seat sharing is on with reports that Thakre is in favour of slashing NCP quota from 22 seats to 19.

Congress had expressed it would contest 29 Lok Sabha seats. Maharashtra sends 48 MPs to Lok Sabha, which is second largest after Uttar Pradesh.