New Delhi, September 01: The issue of Congress-NCP alliance for the Assembly elections in Maharashtra continued to be unclear today with the much talked about meeting between NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Congress leader A K Antony failing to materialise.
The two did attend a Group of Ministers meeting concerning the Food Ministry but had no separate talks on the alliance issue, sources in both the parties said.
After the GoM meeting, Pawar left for Mumbai and is expected back later in the week.
Despite the announcement of the election schedule, there has been uncertainty over seat sharing between the ruling allies.
The Congress which is heading the ruling Democratic Front (DF) coalition government in Maharashtra in alliance with NCP has so far kept its cards close to chest and remained ambivalent on its strategy for the upcoming polls.
However, there have been voices in the Congress that any seat sharing should reflect the realities of the outcome of the recent Lok Sabha elections in the state.
Congress and NCP won 17 and 8 seats respectively out of 48 Lok Sabha seats from the state. In the previous elections to the 288-member Assembly in 2004, Congress and the NCP fought 166 and 122 seats respectively.
NCP has been pressing to keep the alliance with Congress intact to avoid any division of secular votes but Pawar recently said he had received no proposal from the Congress on an electoral alliance.
—Agencies