Congress joins hands with SP in Maharashtra, eyes Muslim votes

TNN, Mumbai :
The Congress has entered into an alliance with Samajawadi Party in Maharasthra to contest the forthcoming assembly elections, in a bid to get a major chunk of Muslim votes in the state.
The agreement was sealed late on Thursday night at a meeting attended by chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, MPCC president Manikrao Thakeray, minority affairs minister Naseem Khan from the Congress and state SP unit chief Abu Asim and party spokesperson Abdul Qadir Chaudhary.
As per the deal, Samajwadi Party will contest on 8 seats. SP had originally demanded 10 assembly seats.
“We didn’t hard sell our share in the seats as we want to stop the saffron parties from coming to power in the state. The alliance will send a positive message and stop the split in the Muslim votes,” said SP general secretary and the party’s spokesperson Abdul Qadir Chaudhary.
Much before the Congress-NCP started their negotiations over seat-sharing, SP’s state unit chief and MLA Abu Asim Azmi wrote to senior Congress leaders offering to form an alliance.
The Congress dithered as long as it hoped to form a pre-poll alliance once again with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP.