Muslim cleric, MNS bag first seats in Maharashtra

October 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance is likely to win the assembly elections in Maharashtra where polling was held Tuesday, according to IBN-Lokmat Times projections. According to these projections, the ruling Congress-NCP alliance will win 135 to 145 seats in the 288-member assembly with the Congress garnering 75-85 seats and the NCP 55-65 seats.

October 12th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Undeterred by opinion polls that predict a hung assembly after Tuesday's Maharashtra assembly polls, the Congress Monday said the party is confident of forming the government with its ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). We are confident of forming the government in Maharashtra with NCP and the performance of Congress would be much better this time.

October 8th, 2009 NEW DELHI - It will be a hung verdict in Maharashtra but the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance will end with most seats while the Congress will sweep Haryana in coming assembly elections, an opinion poll Thursday said. According to the survey by Star News channel, the Congress-NCP combine ruling Maharashtra will win up to 140 of the 288 assembly seats.

September 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is ready to concede more seats to its ally Congress in the Maharashtra assembly elections and seat sharing talks between them are going on smoothly, NCP leader Praful Patel said Wednesday. "The Congress contested a large number of seats last time, they will contest more seats this time.

September 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is ready to concede more seats to its ally Congress in the Maharashtra elections and seat sharing talks between them are going on smoothly, NCP leader Praful Patel said Wednesday. "The Congress contested a large number of seats last time, they will contest more seats this time.

September 11th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Congress Friday appointed Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh as chairman of the election management committee for Maharashtra polls. "Congress president Sonia Gandhi has nominated Vilasrao Deshmukh as the chairman of the election management committee for the ensuing assembly election in Maharashtra," Janardan Dwivedi, chairman of party's media department, said in a release here.

September 8th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar Tuesday urged the Congress to be "pragmatic" about seat sharing arrangement for Maharashtra assembly polls. We are expecting (the) Congress party to convey their thinking...they have to take a pragmatic step, Pawar told NDTV television channel when asked about the Congress demanding more seats this time.

September 1st, 2009 MUMBAI - The Shiv Sena Tuesday said the factionalism in the Bharatiya Janata Party, its alliance partner, would not effect the performance of the coalition in the Maharashtra assembly elections. "The factionalism in the BJP would have no impact on our prospects in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut told IANS.

August 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Congress Monday said it would demand almost a dozen more seats from its coalition partner Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the upcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra. "After the delimitation and seeing the number of seats that we have in the Lok Sabha, we will stake claim to at least a dozen more seats from that we had contested last time," a senior party leader involved with the party's election preparation in the state, said here.

May 16th, 2009 MUMBAI - Early counting trends in Maharashtra Saturday indicated a setback for the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena combine, with the Congress and its ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leading in many seats. As per counting trends at 10.30 a.m., the BJP and the Shiv Sena were leading in eight seats each, while the Congress is leading in 14 and the NCP in 10 seats, an election department official said.

April 8th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Congress and its allies are expected to win more seats from Maharashtra and Punjab in the Lok Sabha elections, according to an NDTV opinion poll released Wednesday. The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are likely to win 30 seats in Maharashtra, up from their current tally of 23, while the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP)-Shiv Sena alliance's number is expected to come down from 25 to 18 in the state's 48 seats, the NDTV said in a statement on the poll.

March 28th, 2009 MUMBAI - Upset over an 'unfair share' of seats for the community in Maharashtra in the forthcoming parliamentary elections, Muslim leaders Saturday called for supporting only 'deserving Muslim candidates' irrespective of their party affiliations. Addressing media persons here Saturday evening, All India Ulema Association president Maulana Syed Athar Ali claimed Muslims constitute a significant 18 percent of the total electorate in Maharashtra, while Dalits and other backward castes (OBCs) constitute 68 percent.

March 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - After its failure to cobble a poll alliance with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar, the Congress party Monday stuck a deal over sharing of seats with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra. 'We will fight unitedly as alliance partners in Maharashtra.

March 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Congress and its United Progressive Alliance (UPA) partner Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Wednesday struck an alliance in Maharashtra for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan told reporters that the two parties had arrived at a seat-sharing arrangement for 40 of the 48 seats in the state.

March 3rd, 2009 MUMBAI - Maharashtra goes to the polls over three phases on April 16, 23 and 30 to elect its 48 representatives to the Lok Sabha. Voting for the two Lok Sabha constituencies in Goa will be held on April 23, the Election Commission announced Monday.