MVA seat sharing almost final, no CM face from alliance

MVA leaders Uddhav Thackeray and Nana Patole. File
| Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini

Seat sharing between the three parties of Maha Vikas Aghadi has almost been finalised, sources told Today News 24 on Monday (October 7, 2024). Notably, the alliance partners have decided that the alliance will not project any CM for the upcoming Maharashtra elections. Of the 288 Assembly seats, consensus has been achieved on over 240 seats.

“We primarily discussed on Marathwada and Vidarbha today. Over 120 seats were discussed. There is consensus on them. The strategy is to decide on seat to seat basis,” a senior leader who was present in the talks, told Today News 24. Another leader said that the parties also held discussions on the smaller parties like the Republican party splinters, left parties, Samajwadi Party, which have demanded over 40 seats from the MVA.

“Many of them are long associations. We had accommodated them during the Lok Sabha elections as well. We want to take everyone together with us,” a senior leader said.

“Our talks were positive today,” Nana Patole, Maharashtra Congress president, told reporters after the meeting. The parties moved ahead on their discussion of seats in Marathwada and Vidarbha. All the three parties have staked claim to some of the seats in the region. There was a deadlock on the seats last week. Today, consensus was achieved on some of these seats, sources said.

In view of the recent electoral performance, the Congress wants to fight on key seats from Vidarbha. But both Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) have staked claim to some of them. There were differences over seats in Marathwada as well. “But the talks have been good. We have moved ahead with our discussions,” a leader said.

Meanwhile, there are differences on a handful seats in the alliance. The decision on those seats will be taken only by the top leaders of the three parties. At present, the talks are being held between the State presidents and key leaders of all the three parties.

While each party has the aspiration for Chief Minister’s position, the alliance has decided that it will not project any CM face for the upcoming election. While the Congress believes that the party with the maximum number of seats will get the CM position, the Shiv Sena (UBT) believes that the alliance has benefitted immensely due to the participation of Uddhav Thackeray, and hence the position should be given to Uddhav Thackeray only. In between, banners with Uddhav Thackeray’s wife Rashmi Thackeray as the future CM of Maharashtra, were also seen in parts of Mumbai. Sharad Pawar has not yet spoken anything about the party’s position on the issue.