MVA parties close to reaching consensus on most seats

Members of the MVA met in Mumbai to decide on a formula for seat sharing in the Lok Sabha polls. Shiv Sena will contest the highest number of seats followed by Congress and NCP. Prakash Ambedkar refused to attend the meeting but agreed to attend the next one. The MVA offered him two seats. Swabhimani Paksha leader Raju Shetti will also be part of the alliance. Parties discussed exchanging seats based on winnability.

Mumbai: Members of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) met in Mumbai on Thursday and are believed to have decided on a formula for seat sharing in the coming Lok Sabha polls, although the final decision is yet to be taken. According to people familiar with the matter, the Shiv Sena (UBT) will contest the highest number of seats followed by the Congress and the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP in that order. Maharashtra sends 48 representatives to the Lok Sabha. In the last elections, in 2019, the Congress won one seat, the NCP (then united), four, and the Shiv Sena (then united), 18. The Shiv Sena was then one entity and part of the BJP-led NDA. The BJP won 23 seats in that election.

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Thursday’s MVA meeting was not short of drama. MVA leaders wrote an invitation letter to Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi (VBA) president Prakash Ambedkar requesting him to attend the meeting ; Ambedkar refused to attend the meeting and wrote back saying state Congress president Nana Patole had no authority to invite him. “I will attend the meeting with invitation letter signed by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar” he wrote. However, he did speak to MVA leaders over phone and agreed to attend the next meeting on January 30. HT learns that the MVA offered him two seats, including Akola. HT also learns that Swabhimani Paksha leader Raju Shetti will also be part of the alliance and contest from Hatkanangale. “We had a discussion with Prakash Ambedkar over phone and he agreed to participate in the next meeting of MVA for seat sharing on January 30. We discussed all seats in today’s meeting and soon finalised the seat sharing,” said Sanjay Raut.

The Thackeray faction was represented by MP Sanjay Raut and MP Vinayak Raut. Congress was represented by state president Nana Patole, former CM Ashok Chavan and senior leader Balasaheb Thorat and NCP was represented by state president Jayant Patil, Anil Deshmukh and Jitendra Awhad.

The people familiar with the matter said that the parties also discussed exchanging seats where they previously contested, or won, on the basis of winnability. Accordingly, Raigad which is with the NCP will go to the Shiv Sena (UBT); the Congress is asking for Kolhapur which is with the Shiv Sena (UBT). But there are constituencies such as Amaravati, Buldhana where more than one of the allies have expressed a desire to contest, the people said.