NCP, Congress to contest Lok Sabha polls together in Maharashtra: Praful Patel

The Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress will be contesting together in upcoming Lok Sabha elections, NCP leader Praful Patel said on Saturday.

"We have decided that NCP and Congress will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections together on 40 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra," Patel said.

"However, a decision is yet to be taken for the remaining 8 Lok Sabha seats of the state," he added.

Maharashtra has 48 Lok Sabha seats, the second highest after Uttar Pradesh's 80.

In December, NCP president Sharad Pawar had also confirmed that his party and Congress have reached consensus on sharing 40 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats.

"We have decided the seat-sharing on 40 seats, still, eight are left. If any consensus is not reached on remaining eight seats then the final decision will be taken by the two party chiefs in New Delhi," ANI reported Pawar as saying.

During 2014 general elections, the Rahul Gandhi-led Congress had fielded political contenders for 27 constituencies in Maharashtra, while the Pawar-led NCP had contested on 21 seats. Earlier, the seat sharing was fixed at 26:22, but later the NCP decided not to contest from the Hatkanangale constituency as it did not have any contender.

This seat was later contested by the Congress.