No talks with Shiv Sena yet on seat sharing for Lok Sabha poll, says BJP 

Maharashtra BJP leader Sudhir Mungatiwar. File
| Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini

Amidst talks of Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena planning to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha election on 22 seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sudhir Mungatiwar dismissed all claims and said, “It is very early to hold talks with the Sena on seat sharing.”

Talking to Today News 24, Mr. Mungatiwar said, “The Sena had come to us (BJP) to form a government and their well-being will be kept in mind. However, absolutely no talk about seat sharing has been held with the Sena,” said the Cabinet Minister for Forests, Cultural Affairs and Fisheries.

Earlier in the day, there were reports of Shinde Sena contesting 22 out of 48 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha election. Talking to Today News 24, Rahul Shewale, a Member of Parliament from Shinde Sena said, “We have decided to contest in all our old seats. Just like the last time, we will be running for all 22 seats this time and the BJP will contest on the remaining 26 seats.”

In 2019, the consolidated Shiv Sena had contested the Lok Sabha election on 22 seats. However, the Shinde faction has 13 MPs while Uddhav Thackeray Sena has only five. Mr. Shewale said, “We are in the process of getting new faces and new members in the party.”

In 2019, the BJP and the Shiv Sena had contested the election in alliance and won 41 out of 48 seats of which the BJP won 23 out of 25 seats while the Shiv Sena won 19 out of 22 seats. The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) contested 25 and 19 Lok Sabha seats, respectively, while Constituent Party candidates contested four seats. This alliance was successful in only five seats including four seats of the NCP and only one seat of the Congress. Now from 2019, the situation is different, so the picture of seat allotment is also fast.

Mr. Shinde has his son, Shrikant from Kalyan, Rahul Shewale from South Central Mumbai, Hemant Patil from Hingoli, Prataprao Jadhav from Buldana, Kripal Tumane from Ramtek, Bhavana Gawli from Yavatmal-Washim, Srirang Barne from Maval, Sanjay Mandalik from Kolhapur, Sadashiv Lokhande from Shirdi, Hemant Godse from Nashik and Rajendra Gavit from Palghar.