GUWAHATI, Aug 24 - Both the Congress and AIUDF today insisted that there has been no seat sharing talks between the two parties and the alliance for the upcoming election has not been formalized as yet.
The statements from both the parties come following murmurs that sharing of seats could be a major hiccup for the AIUDF and Congress alliance, particularly in minority dominated constituencies.
Two days after senior leaders of both the parties met at the residence of former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, senior Congress leaders said that there have been no formal seat-sharing talks with the AIUDF.
�How can there be discussions about seat-sharing when even the alliance has not been formalized? When the time comes we will hold such talks with all opposition parties, who agree to our proposal for the grand alliance. These are still early days. Seat-sharing discussions will take place later. And when they take place, all parties of the grand alliance will be involved in the discussions, not only the Congress and the AIUDF,� a senior office bearer of State Congress said.
AIUDF�s organizing general secretary Aminul Islam too echoed a similar tone.
In a statement, he said Saturday�s meeting at Gogoi�s residence was the first step.
�Our leaders went to welcome the decision taken by the Congress for a grand alliance,� he said.
�We will have to discuss the issue at the steering committee meeting of our party. Then we need to finalize the common minimum programme between the alliance partners. Only after that the issue of seat sharing would come,� Islam added.
He also said AIUDF is also in talks with other parties for a �grand alliance.�
