Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s faction of the Nationalist Congress Party have arrived at a seat-sharing consensus in Maharashtra for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, a media report said.
According to the report, BJP will contest more than 32 seats whereas Ajit Pawar-led NCP is likely to be accommodated in nearly three seats. The Ajit Pawar camp holds only one Lok Sabha seat Raigad, which is represented by Sunil Tatkare. CM Shinde will be offered around 10 seats whereas the remaining four seats may be given to Shiv Sena, NCP candidates. Meanwhile, the Ajit Pawar camp is determined to contest at least 10 out of 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state, as per the report.
The report further said that the development came after Union Home Minister Amit Shah held late-night meetings with Shinde and Deputy CMs Ajit Pawar and Devendra Fadnavis. In these meetings, it was decided that the Shinde Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP will get seats only on the basis of their winning ability. Iit was decided that these parties may have to exchange some seats and if necessary, their candidates might have to contest on the BJP symbol.
In one of the meetings, Shah also advised leaders to not be aggressive while demanding seats and be logical in their approach vis-a-vis seat sharing. They said that consensus was reached on most seats in Maharashtra.
Disputes, however, still persist over seats like Madha, Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Maval, Shirur, Raigad, Mumbai Northwest, Palghar, Sambhaji Nagar, Parbhani, Yavatmal, Shirdi, and Gadchiroli, among the BJP, Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde), and NCP (Ajit Pawar), the report added.
The BJP has announced the first list of 195 candidates across 16 states and two union territories. This list, however, did not mention Maharashtra. Eknath Shinde said the Mahayuti alliance aims to win 45 seats in the State in the Lok Sabha polls to support PM Narendra Modi’s vision to make India a top economy.