The ruling Mahayuti coalition in Maharashtra has finalised the seat-sharing formula for the upcoming Assembly elections, while the Congress-led opposition coalition MVA is struck with differences between Shiv Sena (Uddhav) and Congress.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his two deputies, Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, met Union Home Minister Amit Shah late on Friday night. The late-evening huddle of the top leaders of the Mahayuti coalition in Maharashtra with BJP strategist Shah came at a time when seat-sharing talks among the ruling constituents in the state were at a crucial juncture.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) met Amit Shah to finalise the seat-sharing formula for the election during the meeting. Earlier, the BJP held a meeting of its Central Election Committee on Wednesday and finalised the first list of candidates for the Maharashtra polls.
According to sources, the BJP will contest in 160-155 seats, Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena on 75-80 and Ajit Pawar’s NCP on 50-55 seats for the 288 Assembly seats. Moreover, the alliance have agreed to continue Eknath Shinde as the Chief Minister’s face. If voted back to power, all three parties in the alliance have agreed to get equal number of ministries, sources added.
The Assembly polls in Maharashtra will be held in a single phase on November 20. The votes for the state will be counted on November 23. The BJP is keen to retain power in Maharashtra along with allies Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the NCP led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.
The BJP led Mahayuti alliance is facing a challenge from the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition of the Congress-NCPSP-Shiv SenaUBT, which hopes to repeat its performance in the Lok Sabha elections. The opposition MVA alliance won 31 of the 48 seats in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha elections.
