By IANS,
Raipur : Hoping to stop the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from coming back to power, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have finalised details of their seat sharing arrangement in Chhattisgarh for the assembly polls beginning Nov 14.
The Congress will be contesting 87 seats and the NCP three, disclosed Nobel Verma, the NCP’s sole representative in the 90-member state assembly.
“The agreement is aimed at stopping the divide of anti-incumbency votes,”
Verma told IANS.
While Verma would be contesting from Chandrapur, Ramanuj Agrawal and Lalsai Minj would be the NCP’s nominees from Manendragarh and Samri constituencies respectively.
According to Verma, the NCP was responding to “the people’s call to unite with the Congress to fulfill their aspirations”.
Relations between the two parties have been fraught with tension with the NCP being held responsible for the ouster of the Ajit Jogi-led Congress government in the state’s maiden assembly polls in November 2003.
The NCP, then led by nine-time Congress MP Vidhyacharan Shukla who is now in the Congress, contested 89 seats on its own in Chhattisgarh. Though the party won just one seat, it spoilt the Congress’ chances in as many as 18 seats with a little over seven percent votes polled in its favour.
The two phased election process begins Nov 14 with 39 assembly segments going to the polls. Round two will be held on Nov 20 with elections in the remaining 51 seats.