Guj polls: NCP to contest all seats, talks with Cong fail

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) today said it will contest all 182 seats in the Gujarat Assembly elections, after talks for alliance between the Sharad Pawar-led party and the Congress failed.


In 2007 and 2012, the NCP and the Congress had fought the state elections in alliance. In the present Assembly, the NCP has two MLAs.


The Congress alleged that the alliance broke down because of the NCP's demand for more seats than it should have in the prevalent situation in the poll-bound state. Senior NCP leader Praful Patel said, "We will fight on all the 182 seats. We will release our candidates list today."


"I think it would be better for us to fight on all the seats on our own than in alliance with the Congress," the former Union minister said. The NCP is expected to announce the first list of its candidates later in the day. -- PTI