NCP core panel meet on Monday to decide on deadlock with Congress

New Delhi: Putting pressure on ally Congress over the deadlock regarding seat sharing for the Maharashtra Assembly polls, NCP on Sunday said a meeting of its core committee in Mumbai on Monday will take a final call on the matter even as it asserted that it is sticking to its "original demand".

"No new proposal has been received by the party. We stand by our original demand for 144 Assembly seats. Time is of the essence as the election process has already begun," senior NCP leader Praful Patel said.

Patel said that the meeting of the NCP Core Committee, which is to be held at around noon on Monday, would take a "final call" on the stalemate. His statement came even as Congress looked for ways to end the impasse with leaders from Maharashtra, including Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and PCC chief Manikrao Thakre, holding consultations with some central leaders.

There was no word from Congress on the way ahead and a section of Maharashtra leaders have been alleging that Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar was the stumbling block in efforts to find a solution.

Patel, the NCP Vice President, had on Saturday given Congress a day to respond on the issue of seat sharing for the Oct. 15 Assembly polls in Maharashtra saying that his party could wait no longer.

"The filing of nominations has begun. We can wait for a day more for Congress's response on our proposal on the quantum of seats," Patel had said, though he had clarified that it was not meant to be an ultimatum.

In New Delhi, Maharashtra Congress chief Manikrao Thakre had on Saturday said that they have put the ball in NCP's court and claimed that the Sharad Pawar-led party is yet to give a

"positive response" to the former's proposal for seat-sharing. After a meeting of the party's Central Election Committee (CEC) on Saturday, he had said that Congress will have to prepare for all 288 seats in the state if a response from NCP does not come within a day or two.

The CEC had held deliberations on the selection of candidates for the 174 seats in Maharashtra which the party had contested in the last Assembly polls.