Mumbai: The Shiv Sena (UBT) will announce its first list of candidates in Maharashtra for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls on Tuesday (March 26). Party chief Uddhav Thackeray on Monday had a meeting with NCP (SCP) supremo Sharad Pawar to finalise seat-sharing arrangements for the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance.
Pawar on Monday evening visited Thackeray’s residence, Matoshree, in Bandra to attend the MVA meeting. Both leaders discussed seat-sharing of the MVA constituents.
Senior Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that his party will formally declare candidates for 15-16 seats. “The Shiv Sena (UBT) list will be published on Tuesday. Our first list of candidates for 15-16 seats will be released on Tuesday,” he said.
The Sena (UBT) may announce candidates for Raigad, Ratnagiri, Thane, Parbhani, Buldhana, Yavatmal, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Shirdi, South Mumbai, North West Mumbai, North East Mumbai, Sangli and Maval seats.
According to the Sena sources, the candidates for these seats have been finalised long back, but the announcement was held due to the confirmation of formal seat-sharing among the MVA constituents.
Mr. Raut said that he has still not given up hope on striking an alliance with the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) despite the latter calling off the ties a few days back. “We want Prakash Ambedkar to be with us. We are trying and will try to get him to be with us. We have given him a proposal of four seats, which I think is a good offer. Now it is up to them to accept it or not. There are 4-5 parties in the MVA, so all have to get their share,” he said.
Another MVA constituent, NCP (SCP) is also yet to officially declare its candidates in the state, whereas the Congress has declared its candidates on some seats where there is no dispute with its alliance partners.
Maharashtra, which has 48 Lok Sabha seats, the second highest after Uttar Pradesh (80), will vote in five phases – five seats in Phase 1 (April 19), eight seats in Phase 2 (April 26), and 11 seats each in Phase 3 (May 7) and four (May 13). The remaining 13 seats will go to the polls in Phase 5 (May 20).
