Mumbai: The Congress sidelined state party chief Nana Patole and assigned senior leader Balasaheb Thorat to iron out differences with the Shiv Sena (UBT). Throat on Tuesday met NCP founder Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, after which the MVA reportedly finalised its seat sharing agreement for the Maharashtra Assembly election.
According to the sources, the Congress will contest 105-110 seats, Shiv Sena (UBT) will get 95 seats and NCP (SP)’s will contest 80 seats. In Mumbai, Shiv Sena (UBT) will be the biggest party in MVA with 28 seats, while Congress, NCP (SP) and Samajwadi Party will contest 15, two and one seats respectively.
Last week, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut and Maharashtra Congress chief had an heated altercation on seat sharing. Following this, the Shiv Sena (UBT) urged the Congress to remove Patole from seat sharing talks.
Post this, the Congress leadership swung into action by dispatching AICC’s Maharashtra in-charge Ramesh Chennithala to pacify Uddhav Thackeray and urge Sharad Pawar to end the impasse in the seat sharing.
Thorat, who has been appointed an emissary by the party high command, said there is no dispute over the seats. After his meeting with Pawar and Thackeray, the MVA leaders resumed talks over the seat sharing at a hotel in Mumbai. “The MVA constituents have good candidates, therefore, each constituent has been insisting on their party candidate to be given a seat. There is no dispute. But we are working on a way to resolve such seats,” he said.
An insider in the Congress party said that the central party leadership is of the opinion to take on the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance in upcoming Assembly election by giving upperhand to the Shiv Sena (UBT) in Konkan region especially in Mumbai.
The MVA will formally announce their seat sharing formula on Wednesday in a joint press conference. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that there would be no more meetings on seat sharing. “All is well in the MVA. We will hold a joint press conference tomorrow to announce our seats,” he said.
