Ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly polls, expected to be held in October, the Congress and the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) are set to begin seat-sharing talks. On Sunday, the Congress has set up a state leaders’ committee on negotiations with the MVA, and a meeting of the committee with Ramesh Chennithala, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in charge of Maharashtra.
The Congress meeting comes just days ahead of the meeting with the parties in the MVA – Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (SP) – on August 7 to discuss seat-sharing for the 288-member Assembly and other election activity including coordination for rallies.
Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Balasaheb Thorat told reporters on Wednesday evening, after meeting Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, that the criteria for seat-sharing among the allies will be discussed during the meeting. “Swapping of seats is also possible as winning candidates will be fielded,” he said.
The MVA is on the up in Maharashtra, having won 30 out of the 48 parliamentary seats in the state. The state’s ruling Mahayuti alliance, led by the BJP and comprising Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP, performed poorly, winning just 17 seats compared to 43 in 2019.
Earlier this month, the Congress and Sena (UBT) said they had begun looking for candidates for the Assembly polls. “We have invited applications from aspirants for all 288 Assembly constituencies in Maharashtra…There is nothing wrong in it. Candidates will be picked by all the three parties based on elective merit…But no one should draw any other meaning out of it. We will be contesting elections as Maha Vikas Aghadi,” Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole said.
Shiv Sena (UBT) spokesperson Sanjay Raut too said his party was evaluating candidates for all 288 seats. However, he hastened to add that all MVA constituents will contest the Assembly elections jointly. ”We have the arsenal to win more than 160 seats. Our joint bid will spell doom for Mahayuti. We are not making preparations to go solo. Like Congress, we are also trying to understand the elective merit of our aspirants from all 288 seats,” he said.
The ruling Mahayuti government is facing several issues in the state including the ongoing Maratha quota agitation and the OBC movement against it and unrest among farmers over crop prices. Already the BJP, sources said, has been working towards getting its caste arithmetic right by promoting OBC, Dalit, and Maratha leaders across the state to help counter the Dalit-Muslim consolidation towards the MVA in the Lok Sabha polls. The BJP also has to find a solution for the lack of coordination with its alliance partners. That all was not well in the run-up to the parliamentary polls was apparent when the Mahayuti alliance partners remained stuck on seat-sharing for weeks on end.
Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is set to inaugurate the 24×7 Manimajra water supply project in Chandigarh on Sunday, officials said. Set up at a cost of Rs 75 crore, the project will benefit over one lakh residents.
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