Pawar discusses forthcoming local body elections with party

Mumbai, Jan 2 (UNI) Union Agriculture Minister and NCP President Sharad Pawar tonight held closed-door deliberations with his senior party leaders on the ensuing elections to 10 Municipal Corporations on February 1 and 27 Zilla Parishads and 310 Panchayat Samitis to be held in two phases on February 11 and 14 respectively.

The meeting was held at Ramtek, the official residence of former Deputy Chief Minister and present Public Works Development Minister Chhagan Bhujbal. It was attended by party ministers, ministers of State in the Democratic Front (DF) government, senior office bearers and leaders, sources said.

State Unit President Arun Gujrathi, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and Union Minister of State for Rural Development Suryakanta Patil were also present on the occasion.

The meeting, which began at 2000 hrs, continued till late in the night.

Mr Pawar discussed the present political scenario in the State, the party strategy and campaign for the Municipal Corporation, Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections. However, Mumbai figured prominently in the deliberations and the stand-off with the Congress over the issue of seat-sharing for the Mumbai Civic polls was also discussed.

A majority of leaders blamed the Congress for the delay in formalising the alliance.

NCP has demanded 77 seats out of the total 227 seats. The Congress has, however, rejected this demand. It is ready to give the NCP only around 50 seats. Second round of talks over seat-sharing will begin again tomorrow after a gap of three to four days.

Meanwhile, the NCP does not want an alliance with the Congress in other prominent cities like Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Nagpur, sources added.

UNI