The seat-sharing agreement among the three major parties of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) was finalized on Wednesday. Under this agreement, each of the three parties—Congress, NCP (Sharad Pawar), and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray)—received 85 seats each, while 18 will be left for smaller allies.
There had been long-standing disagreements between Congress, NCP (Sharad Pawar), and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) over the seat-sharing arrangement. After Sharad Pawar’s intervention, the MVA leaders declared a formula for 255 seats, by announcing 85 seats for each of three parties, and said the remaining seats would be announced after sorting out disputes and also consulting smaller allies. He also asked them not to take the smaller parties for granted, as the assembly elections were not going to be easy for any of the three parties, and to resolve the disputed seats by Thursday.
The announcement was jointly made by Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut, state Congress chief Nana Patole and state NCP (SP) chief Jayant Patil in a press conference after a joint meeting between the three parties.
Disputed seats in the state:
The disagreement is not limited to just between Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT); there are also differences between Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharad Pawar) over several seats, including Patan, Khanapur, Chinchwad, Basmath, Kinwat, Jintoor, Anushakti Nagar, and Kurla. Of these, Patan and Kurla were among the 65 candidates that Sena (UBT) unilaterally announced on Wednesday evening. Shortly after the announcement, Sanjay Raut clarified that the list was released by mistake and admitted that several seats listed were still ongoing among MVA partners.
The dispute between the Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) is largely over Vidarbha and Mumbai seats. The disputed seats from Vidarbha are Nagpur South, Armori, Ramtek, Kamthi, Gadchiroli, Gondia, Bhandara, Chimur, Aheri, Warora and Dhamangaon Railway. In Mumbai, the disputed seats include Byculla and Versova, while Mulund, Malabar Hill, Borivali, and Vile Parle are seats that none of the MVA parties are particularly keen to contest.
Among smaller allies, the Samajwadi Party and the Peasants and Workers Party of India (PWP) are each asking for five seats, while the Communist Party of India (Maoist) has requested four. The Aam Aadmi Party had previously declared that it would not contest the Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly elections, is also seeking two seats.
