On eve of seat-sharing announcement, MVA tiff over three seats continues

Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi to announce Lok Sabha seat-sharing formula. Dispute over Sangli, Mumbai South Central, and Bhiwandi seats being resolved.

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is set to declare its seat-sharing formula for all the 48 Lok Sabha seats on Tuesday. However, as late as Monday evening, the three alliance partners were still trying to arrive at a solution for three disputed seats: Sangli, Mumbai South Central and Bhiwandi.

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The Congress has been doing its best to persuade the Shiv Sena (UBT) to cede the Sangli seat to it. Amid the party’s ongoing efforts, Vishal Patil, the Congress leader who is an aspirant to the seat, indirectly threatened to contest as an independent. Patil said that he would wait until Tuesday and then take a decision.

“Let’s wait till tomorrow when the official declaration of seats is made and then we will take our decision,” Patil said in response to a question on the “friendly fight” over the Sangli seat. He added that he was ready to struggle if it was his fate.

Patil also slammed the Shiv Sena (UBT) for being adamant about contesting Sangli and asked why it had selected only Sangli from among several seats of western Maharashtra. “They could have sought Satara, Solapur or Pune—why did they choose Sangli?” he asked. “It is one of the most successful seats of the Congress. They want to take advantage of the Congress’ stronghold in the constituency.”

The Congress has held on to its claim to Sangli and Mumbai South Central, seats where the Shiv Sena (UBT) declared its candidates unilaterally much to the chagrin of its alliance partners. The Congress also wants to contest from Bhiwandi, where the NCP (SP) has also announced its candidate unilaterally.

On Monday, Vishwajeet Kadam, Congress MLA from Palus-Kadegaon constituency in Sangli, held a meeting with senior Congress leaders Balasaheb Thorat and Prithviraj Chavan. He requested both of them to convince the Congress leadership and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray to cede the Sangli seat. Kadam is hell-bent on Sangli, as it is a traditional Congress seat from where the party has won 16 elections.

Kadam also spoke to Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray and asked him to allow the Congress to contest the Sangli seat, since it was in a much better position to win with Vishal Patil as its candidate.

Prithviraj Chavan, when asked about the outcome, said, “Tomorrow the seat-sharing pact will be disclosed. It means that the issue has been resolved, and all the three parties will have to accept it.” Patil, on his part, said, “I am sure we are going to contest from Sangli.”

Shiv Sena (UBT) Sanjay Raut told HT that all the issues had been resolved. “No party has taken any extreme step,” he said. “Party workers do sometimes insist on some seats but they have to be convinced. And this has been done by all the three allies.”