Mumbai: The Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance has stalled the release of their joint manifesto, again, on Wednesday. Leaders of both the parties were supposed to announce their manifesto for the assembly elections, along with the seat sharing details. But instead, they stated, some final decisions are to be taken, regarding allocation of seats.
“We are finalising the allocation of seats with our allies, some smaller parties. Once we take the final call, we will announce our decision through a press release,” said, Prithviraj Chavan, the Congress leader and former chief minister of state.
Leaders of the alliance called for a press conference at 3.00pm on Wednesday afternoon, but finally showed up over two hours later, at 5.30pm.
“We thought the matters would be finalised by afternoon, hence we called for the press conference at 3 pm. But there are certain issues amongst parties like CPI and Janta Dal (Secular) which needs to be resolved first,” added Chavan, justifying the delay.
A similar incident had occurred last week, when the Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) chief spokesperson, Nawab Malik was about to announce their party manifesto, but the Congress party leaders prevented him from doing, few minutes before the announcement.
Meanwhile, at the joint press meet, the Samajwadi Party’s Maharashtra chief, Abu Azmi announced Samajwadi Party joining the Congress-led alliance. Azmi is the sitting legislator from Mankhurd, Shivaji Nagar constituency, in Mumbai.
Azmi stated, his party had asked for three seats, but have been given only three. “No matter what we negotiate with the leaders here, the final decisions of seat allocation are decided by those sitting in Delhi,” alleged Azmi.
He added. “Congress has promised to give me three seats. I hope they remain true to their promise.” Azmi said, he is confident, his party will win all the three seats.
Samajwadi Party has been given Shivaji Nagar (east), Bhiwandi (east) and Aurangabad (east).
