SOLAPUR, Dec 25: Former AICC general secretary Sushilkumar Shinde has said that specific discussions were yet to be held with the Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Prakash Ambedkar over sharing of seats in Maharashtra.Shinde was in his hometown to campaign for party candidate for state legislative council election.

Regarding senior party leader Sharad Pawar meeting Ambedkar in Mumbai recently, Shinde stated that the RPI leader was serious over fighting the communal forces as a part of a united secular front. However, a political truck with RPI and seat sharing did not figure during the discussions, he claimed. On the Congress sidelining its old time RPI aide Ramdas Athawale, Shinde maintained that the party would consider all possibilities. No one was being sidelined, he emphasised. ``Nothing is fishy about it,'' he quipped.

Shinde attributed the recent squabbles among the Congress seniors to a ``communication gap.'' On Sonia Gandhi entering politics, the former state minister preferred to react guardedly. He said that Sonia is held in high esteem among the party workers as a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family.Shinde tried to gloss over a few former Congress stalwarts posing a challenge for the party by way of regional parties. Congress has a tradition of 112 years and it is a strongest organisation in the country, he said. Congress has faced such situations in the history and every time it has come out stronger, he maintained. On the party's alliance with former Bihar chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, Shinde said, ``It's politics.''

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.