Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Chief Sharad Pawar on Monday said that the NCP and Indian National Congress (INC) will contest 125 seats each in the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly polls. He also said that the remaining 38 seats will be given to smaller allies across the state. 

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Re-kindled alliance

The two parties will continue their alliance for these elections and will fight for the 228 seat assembly together. The dates for the elections have not been announced yet by the Election commission, but the polls are likely to be conducted in the month of October. The NCP chief, however, specified that the details of the seats which will be contested are yet to be discussed and decided. 

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In 2014, the two parties had fought the assembly polls separately after they could not come to a seat-sharing agreement. Pawar ended the alliance after a period of 15 years. The decision to break the alliance had an impact on the fate of both the parties as they managed to secure less than 50 seats individually. INC won 42 seats, whereas the NCP 41 seats, finishing third highest and fourth highest respectively in the 2014 Assembly polls. BJP won 122 seats, the highest number of seats and finally allied with the Shiv Sena. 

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Exodus worries for the alliance

The NCP and INC will hope that the renewed alliance will repeat the result of the 2009 Maharashtra polls when they won 144 seats. However, the two parties are facing a mounting problem of their leaders shifting to rival parties before the polls. Three-time MP of the NCP, Udayanraje Bhosale, joined the BJP last week. He was welcomed to the party by Amit Shah and Devendra Fadnavis. After joining BJP, Bhosale said, "Shivaji Maharaj had one moto -- 'Sarv Dharm Sambhav' and India's democracy has been running with that moto only. BJP is trying to build a stronger democracy under Modi and Amit Shah's leadership.
I believe that BJP is leading today by following Shivaji's viewpoints and motto. BJP is progressing in so many states and many people want to become a part of this party. Nobody ever thought of resolving the Kashmir issue but Modi government worked in that direction". Sachin Ahir and Chitra Wagh recently quit the party as well. Vaibhav Pichad recently said that he wished to leave. Urmila Matondkar, who joined the Congress in March, left the party on September 10. Kripa Shankar Singh also quit INC last week. Seven INC members and eight NCP members have left their parties from the current Maharashtra Assembly.

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