The BJP leadership has also come into action as no agreement has been reached yet regarding seat sharing between the NDA alliance in Maharashtra. Tension has increased between BJP and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, especially regarding 4 seats in Mumbai and Thane region. BJP had declared candidates on these seats last Sunday. These four candidates from Kalyan East, Thane, Navi Mumbai and Murbad are part of the first list of 99 candidates released by the BJP. The tension between the two parties regarding these 4 seats has increased so much that the leaders of Eknath Shinde Sena have refused to even campaign.
In such a situation, the BJP leadership wants that all the differences should be resolved soon and the agreement on all 288 seats should be announced soon. Due to this, Amit Shah held a meeting in Delhi on Wednesday, in which Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis and State President Chandrashekhar Bawankule were present. The effect of Eknath Shinde Sena’s threat can be seen on other nearby seats also. BJP has fielded Sulabh Gaikwad, wife of sitting MLA Ganpat Gaikwad, from Kalyan East seat. Ganpat is currently in jail and is accused of firing at Shiv Sena leader Mahesh Gaikwad inside the police station.
The personal rivalry between the two leaders is now affecting the relations between the parties. Shiv Sena leaders have been against making Sulabh Gaikwad a candidate from the beginning. Apart from this, Shiv Sainiks are also angry over making Sanjay Kelkar the candidate from Thane. The reason for this is that Eknath Shinde considers Thane as his stronghold. In such a situation, he is considering it wrong to field a candidate from BJP. Shiv Sena also has objections to the candidature of Ganesh Naik in Navi Mumbai and Kishan Kathor in Murbad. There is also a discussion that friendly fights should be allowed on the disputed seats, but this will also harm the NDA alliance.
However, BJP sources say that the agreement on seat sharing has almost been reached. He says that BJP will field candidates on 160 seats, while Shiv Sena can also take around 120 seats and Ajit Pawar’s NCP will get a chance on the rest. Meanwhile, a preliminary agreement has been reached in the MVA. The three parties have announced the sharing of 85-85 seats. After this, churning is going on for the remaining seats.
