Shiv Sena lawmakers insist Shinde not to accept less than 100 Assembly seats

Mumbai: The seat sharing for the Maharashtra Assembly is proving to be a major bone of contention for the Mahayuti — the alliance led by the BJP. While the BJP is not ready to relinquish its position of big brother alliance, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has demanded the highest seat share in the Mahayuti for Assembly elections.

In a party meeting held at CM’s official residence Varsha on Thursday evening, Shiv Sena MPs and MLAs told the Maharashtra CM that their party gave the best performance in the Lok Sabha elections among the Mahayuti constituents and therefore they should get the highest number of seats. The development comes on the same day the BJP’s core committee decided not to settle for anything less than 160 out of 288 Assembly seats.

Citing the party’s significant success in the grand alliance during the Lok Sabha elections, Shiv Sena lawmakers insisted that their party should get the maximum seats and they should not accept anything less than 100 out of 288 seats.

“Shiv Sena achieved significant success in the Lok Sabha elections, with its candidates winning seven out of 15 seats, resulting in a 47 per cent strike rate. Our candidates garnered 74 lakh votes, which was 19 per cent of the total electorate. Therefore the MLAs are determined that the party should contest the maximum number of seats in the upcoming assembly elections in Mahayuti,” a senior party leader said.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Shinde clarified that the Assembly election, which is expected to be held in October this year, will be contested as part of the grand alliance with the BJP and Ajit Pawar-led NCP.

“The CM emphasized the importance of prioritising organisation building, conducting constituency-specific surveys, registering new members in Yuva Sena and Mahila Aghadi, and ensuring the effective delivery of government schemes to the grassroots. He also urged the MPs and MLAs to avoid internal conflicts and criticism,” a source said.

In the meeting, the party appointed assembly election observers for 126 seats and in-charges for “key constituencies”. Former Shiv Sena MP Hemant Godse announced the appointments. “We discussed the strategy regarding the upcoming Assembly elections. We need to tell the people about our schemes during campaigning. In the Lok Sabha elections, our performance was 45 per cent. This time, it will be 90 percent. Observers and in-charge have been appointed for 126 seats,” he said.

All three major constituents of Mahayuti have repeatedly asserted that they will contest the Assembly polls as part of the grand alliance. However, all of them are finding it extremely difficult to accommodate the aspirations of all leaders. The Ajit Pawar-led NCP leaders, including senior state minister Chhagan Bhujbal, have publicly stated that they will not accept anything less than 80 assembly seats. Besides, the alliance also has smaller partners like Ramdase Athawale’s RPI, Mahadev Janakar’s Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, Vinay Kore’s Jan Surajya and Bacchu Kadu’s Prahar Janashakti Party.

The Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s status in the Mahayuti is also not known yet. Raj Thackeray had declared unconditional support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Lok Sabha election. However, he has not not formally joined the alliance.