The matter of seat sharing seems to be stuck between the constituent parties of Maha Vikas Aghadi regarding the assembly elections in Maharashtra. Maharashtra Congress has clearly told its leadership in Delhi not to give in to pressure and not give its seats in Vidarbha to the faction of Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray Sena. Let us tell you that after the results of Lok Sabha elections, Congress has high expectations from Maharashtra, where 13 of its MPs had won the elections.
Congress is also in talks with NCP (Sharad Pawar). He has also demanded seats in Vidarbha. Congress leaders in Maharashtra have accused the Uddhav Thackeray faction of threatening them for more share in seat sharing. According to an Economic Times report, a Congress leader said, “Shiv Sena (UBT) does not have a presence in the seats it is demanding. Even when Shiv Sena had not broken up and formed an alliance with the BJP, He did not contest those seats even then. But now he wants to contest these seats because these are winnable seats for us.” Let us tell you that Uddhav group had demanded 12 seats from Vidarbha. Congress has historically performed well.
Uddhav Thackeray had warned the Congress that seat-sharing talks should not be escalated to “breaking point”. However, he withdrew his steps after realizing that Congress was not going to be too soft. Maharashtra Congress leaders have told their leadership that the Uddhav and Pawar faction is not demanding seats, but is trying to put pressure on it to give its winnable seats.
Sanjay Raut said, “We have asked for seats from Congress in Vidarbha because NCP’s (Sharad Pawar) presence there is negligible.” UBT’s Rajya Sabha MP was targeting Congress only two days ago. Although now he looks calm.
Senior Congress leaders have expressed confidence of resolving differences with their allies on some seats. During the meeting of AICC Screening Committee and Central Election Committee on Monday, these leaders said that the first list of Congress candidates will be declared on Tuesday. Maharashtra Congress in-charge Ramesh Chennithala said that in a coalition arrangement, it is natural for allies to try to get maximum share during seat sharing talks. There are no serious differences between us. We are united. Talks are going on regarding the remaining seats and it will be resolved soon.”
Maharashtra PCC president Nana Patole said the MVA allies are more united than the rival Mahayuti allies. “We will declare the first list of candidates on Tuesday. The issues on 30-40 seats within the MVA will be resolved soon,” he said.
