The Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) faction are discussing a deal whereby the Congress gets to contest in 20 Lok Sabha seats while the Sena (UBT) and NCP(S) will contest on 18 and 10 seats respectively in Maharashtra.
While the contours of the deal are being discussed, sources said that the seat-sharing talks are far from complete. “We believe the ‘20,18,10’ formula would be a win-win for everyone and should keep everyone happy. However, the bigger issue is to resolve which party would contest on which seat and we are trying to resolve it,” said a Congress leader aware of the discussions.
According to him, there are a dozen seats where there are competing claims from the allies. Most of the disputes pertain to that of the Congress claiming seats from the ones that the pre-split Shiv Sena had held in 2019. There are 13 Sena MPs who joined the Shinde camp and the Congress is keen on fighting on several of these seats, claiming that the Sena (UBT) has no strength.
Of the 20 seats being allotted to the Congress, the party is willing to set aside two seats from its quota to prospective allies like Prakash Ambedkar of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) and Raju Shetti of the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS).
The Congress is willing to set aside the Akola Lok Sabha seat for VBA and the Hatkanangale seat for Raju Shetti if they decide to join the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance.
However, both VBA and SSS have sought more seats. “While the VBA has sought 12 seats each for all the allies in the MVA, Raju Shetti too has also sought four to five seats. Raju Shetti may agree on the Hatkanangale seat. However, we are not sure that Ambedkar would agree on this one-seat deal. According to us, he is not serious on having an alliance and has hence placed a demand of 12 seats,” said the Congress leader.
Leaders of the three parties are scheduled to meet on January 14 and 15 in Delhi to discuss seats.
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