A final decision on the distribution of seats will probably be made this week.
Mumbai:
With the Maharashtra Assembly elections just over a month away, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi has consolidated seat allocation in 263 of the state's 288 constituencies, sources have told NDTV.
A meeting of alliance partners Congress, NCP's Sharad Pawar faction and Shiv Sena's Uddhav Thackeray faction was held on Thursday and good progress was made in seat-sharing discussions, the sources said. The meeting was attended by Congress Maharashtra president Nana Patole, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), MP Sanjay Raut and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) leaders Jitendra Awhad, Jayant Patil and Anil Deshmukh, among others.
The remaining 25 seats that are still contested include five of the 36 Assembly constituencies in Mumbai, including Kurla, Dharavi, Versova and Byculla. The sources said the list of final and disputed segments will be sent to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and the heads of the other two coalition partners, Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar, who will take a final decision in “two to three days”.
The Election Commission on Tuesday announced that the elections in Maharashtra will be held in a single phase on November 20, which will set the stage for one of the most interesting Assembly contests the state has ever seen.
Equations shift
The last elections in 2019 were a fairly straightforward battle between the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena coalition on one side and the Congress-NCP alliance on the other. Despite having sufficient numbers to form the government after the results were announced, the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance split over the chief minister's post and Uddhav Thackeray took over the top position in the state after forging a coalition with the NCP and the Congress. as unlikely partners.
A rebellion by Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde led to the fall of the government in 2022 and Mr Shinde was subsequently sworn in as chief minister with the support of the BJP. The next year, the ruling alliance got a third partner when Ajit Pawar decided to split the NCP and took oath as deputy chief minister alongside BJP leader and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
The battle is now between the Congress, the BJP and two Shiv Senas and NCPs, whose leaders are out to prove that they are the real claimants to the legacies of the original parties, despite the original symbols and names going to the rebel factions.
Lok Sabha Results
The Lok Sabha elections shocked the ruling coalition, known as the Mahayuti, when it won only 17 of the state's 48 constituencies, while the Maha Vikas Aghadi's tally stood at 30. The Assembly elections were thus seen as an uphill battle for the Mahayuti, but this appears to have been made easier by the poll results in Haryana, where the BJP formed a government – which delivered its best ever performance in the state – despite the struggle against the established power after two consecutive terms in power.
While the Congress was criticized by its allies, including Thackeray's Shiv Sena, for losing Haryana, Sharad Pawar on Thursday said the elections in the northern state would have no impact on Maharashtra's results.
“We are studying the results of Haryana, but at the same time we are looking at the results of the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. I don't think these (Haryana's results) will have any impact on the state elections. As far as Jammu and Kashmir is concerned, the world community is paying more attention to it and the poll results are more important for the country,” he told news agency PTI.
The National Conference-Congress Alliance won 48 of Jammu and Kashmir's 80 constituencies in the erstwhile state's first assembly elections since 2014. However, the Congress contributed only six and decided to support the government from outside after the Omar Abdullah-led party received the support of four independents and the only AAP MLA. Sources had said that the decision was taken after Congress got only one ministerial seat.
