Opposition in Maha divided over LS seat-sharing

Both the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (Sharad Pawar) are currently at their weakest, following a split in both parties

MUMBAI: While the state’s opposition parties have decided to contest the election as an alliance in Maharashtra, at the preliminary stage there appears to be no consensus on how the seats should be shared, with different parties expressing different expectations.

New Delhi, Dec 30 (ANI): Congress leader Ghulam Ahmad Mir speaks to the media after Congress National Alliance Committee Meeting at the residence of party leader Mukul Wasnik, in New Delhi on Saturday. (ANI Photo/ Ayush Sharma) (Ayush Sharma)

In a meeting held between leaders of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharad Pawar) on Friday evening, it was decided that the Sena should contest 23 seats while the NCP would press for ten to eleven seats. Both parties believe that they are in a better position than their third Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) ally, the Congress, to win that many seats.

However, in another meeting held on Friday in New Delhi, Congress leaders in the capital decided that they should get 22 seats in the seat-sharing formula. Congress leaders want the Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) to contest on 18 and six seats respectively. The grand old party is also willing to set aside two seats for the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), which has shown keen interest in joining the MVA.

The matter is likely to be discussed in a meeting of all four parties in Mumbai soon. Thackeray and the Congress leadership will soon have a separate meeting in Delhi for seat-sharing talks.

Both the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (Sharad Pawar) are currently at their weakest, following a split in both parties. Twelve of the 18 Shiv Sena MPs have extended their support to Eknath Shinde, while one out of four NCP MPs has declared support to rebel faction leader Ajit Pawar.

In the last general elections, the undivided Shiv Sena had won 18 out of 23 seats in alliance with the BJP while the NCP won four out of 19 seats contested in alliance with the Congress. The Congress could win only one seat of the 25 contested in the state.

Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP and spokesperson on Friday had declared that the party would contest 23 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats. “There is no question of compromising on our share,” he said.

The same evening, NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) Maharashtra president Jayant Patil and senior leader Jitendra Awhad held a meeting with Thackeray at his Bandra residence, where they discussed the proposed formula for sharing of seats. According to insiders, in the course of a three-hour discussion, the leaders reached a consensus on 23 seats for the Shiv Sena (UBT) and at least 11 seats for the NCP (Sharad Pawar). This means they want to leave around 12 seats for the Congress, as the rest will have to be shared with the Ambedkar-led VBA, which has also demanded 12 seats in the alliance.

The 11 seats to which the NCP has laid claim are Baramati, Madha, Shirur, Satara, Jalgaon, Raver, Dindori, Beed, Ahmednagar and Bhiwandi and any one seat between Amravati and Bhandara.

The NCP also wants one Lok Sabha seat in Mumbai—Mumbai North-East—for its city chief Rakhi Jadhav. However, the Shiv Sena (UBT) leadership was not convinced with its argument, revealed a Sena leader.

The Congress, on the other hand, wants three of the six Lok Sabha seats in Mumbai among the 22 seats it has decided to fight. Party insiders said this was expressed in a meeting held in Delhi headed by party general secretary Mukul Wasnik, in which all the senior leaders from Maharashtra were present.

The three seats sought by the Congress are Mumbai South-Central, Mumbai North-Central and Mumbai North-West. Mumbai South-Central and Mumbai North-West are with the Shiv Sena, but the sitting MPs—Rahul Shewale and Gajanan Kirtikar—rebelled against the Thackeray leadership and are currently with the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. Mumbai North-Central is with the BJP. The Congress had unsuccessfully contested two of these three seats in the general elections held in 2019. Mumbai North-East was contested by the NCP but it too lost the seat.

Despite making a claim on 23 seats, Thackeray on Saturday clarified that his party did not want to spoil the talks and he would not comment on anything before discussing it with the Congress leadership. “The seat-sharing process will be completed smoothly,” he said. “We have already had a discussion with the NCP. During my last visit to Delhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi told me that they would have a one-on-one discussion on seat-sharing with me. I will not answer any questions until my interaction with the Congress leadership.”

Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole also refused to react to the Shiv Sena’s claim and said that their leadership would take a final call on the number of seats the party would contest. “I will not react to any comments,” he said, taking a cautious stand. “The decision of seat-sharing will be taken unanimously when the leaders of the three parties sit together.”

The MVA alliance will face a tough contest, as the BJP now has the strength of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP. Both of them jointly have the support of over 40 MLAs.

Mrudul Nile, associate professor of political science, University of Mumbai, opined that if the opposition parties wanted to give a tough fight to the BJP and its allies, elective merit should be the only criterion. “The winnability criterion is a much better option than the number of seats a particular party is asking for,” he said. “I can understand that the number of candidates contesting is also important and is considered a sign of expansion and strength. But in the current scenario, the opposition parties need to understand that two of the political parties (Shiv Sena and NCP) will be fighting against their own (rebel) factions.”