7 Lok Sabha seats become bone of contention in the MVA

Mumbai: Around half a dozen Lok Sabha seats have created a deadlock in Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), which includes Congress, Shiv Sena UBT and the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP. The seats include Ramtek, Hingoli, Wardha, Bhiwandi and Shirdi, where the Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress have been making a claim over the same.

The Congress is also seeking Mumbai South Central and Mumbai North West seats for Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad and former Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam. Shiv Sena (United) had won both the seats in 2019 in alliance with the BJP. Uddhav Thackeray led party is not ready to leave both the seats.

According to the sources, if the deadlock is not resolved in the next meeting on February 2, the issue will be decided by the top leadership of all three parties in New Delhi.

MVA leaders on Tuesday held a meeting to discuss seat sharing for Lok Sabha elections at a five-star hotel in South Mumbai. The alliance had also invited Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi chief Prakash Ambedkar for the meeting. However, Mr. Ambedkar skipped the meeting due to prior commitments and sent his representative instead.

VBA vice president Dhairyavardhan Pundkar alleged that his party was disrespected and they were forced to sit outside for an hour before joining the meeting.

Even as his party is holding seat-sharing discussions, Mr. Ambedkar said that the Congress will lose the deposit on majority Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra if the party contests the elections alone. “Our target is to keep the BJP out of power. We have kept aside our ego,” Mr. Ambedkar told the reporters.

Speaking with the reporters, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut said that they have taken multiple decisions. “The MVA has been expanded today. Janta Dal (United) CPI, PWP, CPI (M), SP, AAP and VBA have been included in the MVA. The MVA has become even stronger. Seat sharing is going on very positively,” Mr. Raut said.

When asked about the VBA vice president’s claim of disrespect disrespect, Mr. Raut said it was not true. “The VBA’s three leaders joined the meeting and had lunch with us. We have also given a letter to them regarding their inclusion of the VBA in the MVA. Prakash Ambedkar will himself attend the next meeting on February 2,” he said.

However , Mr. Ambedkar again raised the issue of Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole’s authority to sign the letter of VBA’s inclusion in the MVA. “VBA’s State Vice-President was not given due respect in the MVA meeting. We are not aware nor informed by AICC or by Ramesh Chennithala whether Nana Patole has any authority to sign any letters regarding an alliance or not . But we will join the MVA in the next meeting since VBA’s priority is to defeat the BJP-RSS (sic),” Mr. Ambedkar said.