Pune: City Congress unit has demanded that its leadership should bargain on the number of seats to be contested before deciding on the Maha Vikas Aghadi - the political alliance between Congress (INC), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Shiv Sena (SS) - for the upcoming civic elections.

Congress workers voiced their opinions during a meeting called upon to decide the strategy for the upcoming Pune municipal elections. Former Congress MLAs, state and city office bearers attended the meeting which was chaired by city unit president Ramesh Bagwe.

During the meeting, some office bearers discussed various issues including whether to contest the elections independently or with an alliance, and whether to have two wards or single ward arrangement in the elections. Some office-bearers insisted on a single ward, while some advocated a ward of two which would enable Congress to get a larger share in the distribution of seats.

An office-bearer expressed his displeasure over the treatment meted out by the NCP to Congress workers in the city. Another office-bearer said instead of debating on whether to have a ward of one or two, party workers should help each other during elections. "We should come together, contest elections and win them before we start disputing with each other. In the last election, I had demanded four tickets but the party refused and I had to contest alone. Some members withdrew their nomination, but if they had contested they would have won the elections. It would have increased the party corporators tally by two," he said.

A senior office-bearer said, "As a party, we should not hesitate to make our stand clear on several issues. When we asked the state president to decide our stand on the SPPU flyover demolition issue, we were asked to stay silent as it was NCP leader Ajit Pawar's decision to demolish the flyover. None of the party leaders is ready to take an interest in the city political affairs due to Ajit Pawar."