Mumbai, Sep 15 - The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) agreed in principle to contest the Oct 13 Maharashtra assembly elections jointly after the third round of their marathon meetings concluded here late Wednesday.

The ticklish issue of seat-sharing shall be decided Thursday in New Delhi where a formal announcement is likely to made subsequently, according to a Congress party office-bearer.

Senior leaders of both parties have been engaged in hectic rounds of talks since Tuesday to hammer out a mutually acceptable seat-sharing formula.

Though the seat-sharing has yet to be finalised, indications are that the Congress-NCP may agree on contesting 174-114 seats, respectively.

Talks are now focused on the choice of seats that they would contest, the office-bearer said.

Though around 200 of the total 288 seats have been cleared, there are some disputes in the remaining 88 seats, mainly due to the recent delimitation exercise and accommodating the independents supporting both the parties.

The final picture would emerge after state leaders of the two parties discuss various issues with their party leaderships Thursday, he said.