Addressing a press conference here, Ubale said the RPI-A is contesting 3 Lok Sabha and 22 State Assembly seats in Maharashtra in alliance with the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The party, which has been alloted Nagpur, Pandharpur and Mumbai North Central Lok Sabha seats, has also staked a claim over Buldana and Chandrapur Lok Sabha seats and has demanded ten Assembly seats in addition to the 22 alloted to it by the NCP-led alliance.

In a politically significant decision, the party has already decided not field candidates against three leaders of the rival RPI factions. Though the RPI-A is having sharp differences with a faction headed by Prakash Ambedkar and another led by the R S Gavai-Jogendra Kawade duo on entering into electoral alliance, it has decided not to opposeAmbedkar, Gavai and Kawade, even if they enter the fray with the support of the Sonia-led Congress, Ubale said.

The party leader was critical of the Election Commission's decision to allot the `rising sun' symbol to the Gavai-Kawade faction. According to him, the EC erred in judging the respective strengths of the rival RPI factions. Referring to the EC decision on freezing the Janata Dal's `wheel' symbol and allotting two separate symbols for the party's rival factions headed by Deve Gowda and Sharad Yadav, he said the EC could have temporarily settled the RPI dispute in the same manner. But strangely, one set of rules was applied to settle the JD dispute and another for the RPI. It amounted to violation of the principle of equality before law, he alleged.

The RPI has now decided to get the matter settled by public opinion. The RPI-A is holding a mass rally at Shivaji park in Mumbai on August 22, he added.

Party's State unit general secretary Umakant Ramteke, Mahila Aghadi Chief Jyoti Lanjewar, cityunit president Prahlad Durge, Secretary Prakash Gajbhiye and Dharam Patil were present at press conference.