Mumbai: The confusion over the Maha Vikas Aghadi’s seat sharing agreement continued on Wednesday. Even before the the three major constituents of the alliance — Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) — claimed they have reached an agreement on 270 out of 288 seats, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party announced its first list of 65 candidates and quickly withdrew it citing “administrative errors”.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) list of 65 candidates, which included Aaditya Thackeray’s name, was released at around 6.50pm. However, within half and hour party leader Sanjay Raut clarified that the list was not the final one and it was released by mistake. “We are aware that the list includes candidates on certain seats that we have agreed to give to our alliance partners Congress, NCP (SP) and Peasants and Workers Party (PWP). It happened because of some administrative error. We will find out how it happened and the actual list of candidates will be issued tomorrow,” Raut said.
The leaders of all three parties met NCP founder Sharad Pawar in Mumbai to resolve disagreements on at least 28 seats. According to sources, Mr. Pawar instructed the leaders to issue a joint statement to assure respective party workers that the three parties have sorted their differences and will face the election together. A source informed that Pawar told the leaders that a wrong message is being given about the MVA in people and the party workers because of their failure to resolve the seat sharing issue.
As per Pawar’s suggestion, NCP (SP)’s Jayant Patil, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Raut and Congress’s Nana Patole along with other leaders jointly addressed the media where they claimed that all three parties have agreed to contest 85 seats each, which comes to 255 seats in total. However, at the same time all of them also claimed that the agreement has been reached on 270 seats.
Patole claimed that only 28 out of 288 seats remained to be discussed after Wednesday’s meeting. However, Jayant Patil of the NCP (SP) corrected him saying that the final decision on only 18 seats is pending.
Patole said that smaller parties in the alliance, such as Samajwadi Party, PWP and communist parties, will be accommodated in the remaining seats after finalising the share of the three major parties. Interestingly, the PWP and SP have already declared candidates without waiting for the decision of Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP).
However, Raut expressed confidence that the smaller partners will remain in the MVA to put up a united fight against the BJP.
According to the sources, the Congress is still staking a claim on Chandrapur Assembly constituency in Chandrapur district and Aheri Assembly constituency in Gadchiroli district of Vidarbha region. The NCP (SP) is also making counter claims on both the seats.
Meanwhile, the Mahayuti alliance comprising BJP, Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP have declared candidates for 182 out of 288 Maharashtra Assembly seats. The NCP announced 38 candidates including 26 sitting MLAs. Shiv Sena has declared 45 candidates including chief minister Eknath Shinde, while the BJP has announced its candidates for 99 seats. Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, NCP state president Sunil Tatkare, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis have gone to New Delhi to meet top leadership of BJP to hold a discussion over 18 to 20 disputed seats. The Mahayuti candidates will start filing nominations from Thursday.
