MVA seals seat sharing for Maharashtra, Congress contests 105-110 seats, Uddhav Sena 90-95

The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance has finalized the seat-sharing arrangement for the Maharashtra Assembly elections, sources told India Today. Under the proposed agreement, the Congress will contest 105-110 seats, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) will field candidates in 90-95 seats, and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Sharad Pawar will contest 75-80 seats . constituencies.

Congress has become the number one party in terms of seat share in Maharashtra. In the Lok Sabha elections, the grand old party won the highest 13 seats, followed by the Udhhav Sena’s 9. Uddhav Thackeray had earlier hoped for 120-125 seats. His party had contested 124 votes in the last parliamentary elections.

The MVA, formed after the 2019 state elections, aims to dethrone the ruling Mahayuti alliance, which consists of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP. The opposition bloc will be hoping to repeat the success of the recent Lok Sabha elections where it outperformed the Mahayuti alliance and secured 30 seats against Mahayuti’s 17. Congress won 13 of the 17 seats it contested, while Shiv Sena (UBT) won 9 of the 21 seats. .

The MVA alliance faced internal disputes over seat sharing, with Congress leader Nana Patole and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut publicly clashing over the allocation. To address these differences, MVA leaders held a nine-hour marathon meeting at the Trident Hotel in South Mumbai on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Mahayuti has also achieved seat sharing and the BJP is expected to contest 152 to 155 seats. As per the deal, Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena will get 78 to 80 seats and the NCP faction will get 52 to 54 seats. The final agreement was reached at a meeting at Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s residence in Delhi.

The Maharashtra Assembly election will be held on November 20, with counting of votes on November 23.

(With inputs from Sahil Joshi)