Maharashtra: Seat-sharing talks in Maha Vikas Aghadi underway, Congress likely to field candidates on maximum seats

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 11 (ANI): As the Maharashtra assembly elections are slated to be held later this year, discussions on seat-sharing in the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance consisting of the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)-SP, and the Shiv Sena (UBT) among others are underway.

The Maharashtra assembly polls are scheduled later this year to elect 288 members of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.

Earlier on Tuesday, the top leaders of the three major allies — Congress, NCP-SP, and Shiv Sena (UBT) — held a meeting and deliberated on the seat-sharing formula.

According to the sources from the Congress, the party is likely to contest 120-130 assembly seats; the Shiv Sena (UBT) 90-100 seats while the NCP-SP is likely to contest 75-80 seats in the coming elections.

The Maharashtra Congress Unit is set to hold a two-day meeting to discuss seat-sharing, starting today.

Earlier, after the conclusion of the Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party core committee on June 29, party state president Ashish Shelar said that the BJP will contest the assembly polls with its Mahayuti ally partners, and a road map for the same was decided in the meeting.

Shelar said that a proposal was passed appreciating the budget of Maharashtra, which covers the welfare of all segments of society, including farmers, youth, women, etc.

“BJP will contest assembly polls with its Mahayuti ally partners and a road map for the same was decided in the meeting. No organisational changes are to be made in the state unit of the BJP. Also, a proposal was passed appreciating yesterday’s budget of Maharashtra, which covers the welfare of all segments of society, including farmers, youth, women, etc. A clear road map for contesting and winning Assembly polls was discussed and finalised,” the BJP leader said.

The Lok Sabha polls 2024 have given a boost to the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance, with the Shiv Sena (UBT) winning seven seats, the Congress 13, and the NCP-SP one, taking the total tally of the alliance 17.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dipped to nine seats in Maharashtra against 23 in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The vote share stood at 26.18 per cent.

In the 2019 Assembly elections, the BJP and the undivided Shiv Sena had contested in an alliance. The BJP won 105 seats while the Sena won 56 seats.

The undivided NCP had won 44 seats while the Congress had won 44 seats.