The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance in Maharashtra has reached a deal for the state’s 48 Lok Sabha seats – 10 days before the start of the election – senior bloc leaders said Tuesday morning
The Shiv Sena faction led by former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray gets the lion’s share – 21 seats – with the Congress allotted 17 and 10 reserved for Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party group.
Mr Thackeray’s Sena will also contest four of Mumbai’s six seats – North West, South Central, South, and South East seats. The Congress will contest the other two – North and North Central.
The Bhiwandi and Sangli seats – which all three claimed, threatening to derail talks – have been given to Mr Pawar’s NCP and Uddhav Thackeray’s Sena. Congress leader Nana Patole called the issue “resolved” and said, “… our workers will work to make the MVA candidates victorious in both seats.”
“… we saw what (this) dictatorial government (a reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party) has been doing. Our workers have worked wholeheartedly, across the country, to fight against these dictatorial people,” the Congress’ Maharashtra unit boss said.
“The aim is to throw out the BJP. We will work unitedly towards this.”
“There comes a time when we have to move forward… we have reached this deal with the aim of winning the election. We have done this… now the people will decide,” Mr Thackeray said.
Mr Pawar said candidates (for seats not yet announced) will be announced soon.
The MVA’s seat-share deal comes shortly after Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi – which has substantial support among the Dalit communities – withdrew from talks.
The VBA held prolonged talks with the tripartite alliance but an agreement was not forthcoming. Mr Ambedkar wanted five seats for his party but the MVA, sources indicated, would offer only two.
“They are hiding something. There is no openness between them… whether they are going to stay together is the question. The 15 unresolved seats are (also) a big issue,” he told NDTV last month.
