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The seat-sharing talks between senior Congress and NCP leaders for next month's Assembly polls in Maharashtra remained inconclusive on Tuesday night with both sides deciding to meet again on Wednesday.
The two sides described the first formal talks over seat-sharing for the October 13 Assembly elections as "satisfactory".
The Congress sources described the talks as preliminary where the two parties identified constituencies where they are strong. Congress is ready to give 113-115 seats to the NCP out of the total 288, they said. In 2004, NCP contested 124 seats and won 71, while Congress fought on 164 and bagged 69.
The two-hour meeting took place at 'Varsha', Chief Minister Ashok Chavan's official residence in south Mumbai.
Top state Congress leaders arrived here this evening from Delhi after consultations with Defence Minister and AICC General Secretary in-charge of Maharashtra A K Antony.
Chavan, state Congress president Manikrao Thakre, Maharashtra Minister Narayan Rane, Mumbai Congress chief Kripashankar Singh, Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh represented Congress at the talks.
The NCP was represented by Union Minister Praful Patel, Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, state NCP chief R R Patil, Minister Ajit Pawar and Mumbai NCP President Sachin Ahir.