Mumbai: Caretaker Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde today (Oct 21, 2004) expressed surprise over CPM's (Communist Party of India-Marxist) stand of rejecting any pre-poll truck with the Congress.

"How can they say this? It is surprising...We had a pre-poll alliance with the CPM," Shinde told reporters in Mumbai.

"If there was not any pre-poll alliance then why would have Congress left the Solapur (south) Assembly seat for the Marxist party," Shinde questioned.

He reiterated that Congress had a pre-poll alliance with the Left party.

The senior Congress leader's stand on a pre-poll truck with the CPM comes in the backdrop of the Left Party's assertion that it did not have any understanding with the Congress.

The Marxist party's view on alliance came as a dampener for Congress, which had cited CPM's three seats to jack up its tally in the 288-member lower house to claim the chief-ministership.

The tussle for the coveted post was triggered after NCP's (Nationalist Congress Party) tally went to 71, two more than that of its ally, Congress.

Asked about the talks between Congress and NCP over the contentious issue, Shinde said, "the matter was likely to be decided after 'Dusshera' by the senior leadership of both the parties."

Meanwhile, in a related development, RPI (Republican Party of India) group leader Ramdas Athavale, met NCP President Sharad Pawar in New Delhi and expressed confidence that a new Government will soon be formed in the State.