Deal on NDA Maha LS Seats Today, says Ajit

Mumbai: Amidst the concern in the BJP alliance partners over getting less number of seats, deputy chief minister and NCP chief Ajit Pawar on Sunday claimed that all three parties in the Mahayuti government in Maharashtra will get a respectable number of seats to contest.

Ajit Pawar said that he along with chief minister Eknath Shinde, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule, NCP leaders Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare will visit Delhi on Monday to finalise the seat sharing of the Mahayuti, which comprises of the BJP, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction. “All three parties will get a respectable number of seats to contest,” he said.

Ajit Pawar’s remarks on the backdrop of growing discontent among the BJP alliance partners over the reports that the saffron party is unwilling to offer more seats to the Shinde’s Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP.

Out of Maharashtra’s total 48 seats, the BJP is expected to contest 30-32 seats, while Shinde is expected to get around 10-12 seats and Pawar would get 4-6 seats. Of the six Lok Sabha seats in Mumbai, BJP might contest five and the remaining one seat by Shinde’s Shiv Sena.

In 2019, the BJP contested 25 seats and bagged 23 while Shiv Sena contested 23 and got 18, the Congress contested 25 seats and won one seat while the NCP contested 19 seats and won four.

After the split, in Shiv Sena, the ruling Shinde-group commands a strength of 13 MPs while the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) five. On the other hand, Sharad Pawar’s NCP commands a strength of three while Ajit Pawar one.

Several Shinde Sena leaders have openly criticised the BJP for trying to eat into Shiv Sena’s share of seats for the Lok Sabha polls.

However, another NCP leader Sunil Tatkare said there are no differences among the alliance partners over the Maharashtra seats distribution. “Our earlier meeting got over in an extremely friendly atmosphere. Our common aim is to win 45 seats in Maharashtra. We have finalised 80 per cent seats in the state and the decision on the remaining seats will be taken in couple of days,” he said.