Mumbai: Seat-sharing troubles continue to besiege the ruling Mahayuti government in Maharashtra a month before the state votes in the first phase of parliamentary elections, with alliance partners still squabbling over at least six seats.
Maharashtra votes for its 48 parliamentary seats in five phases between 19 April and 20 May. Although the process of filing nominations has already begun for the first phase, the Mahayuti alliance comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) faces challenges in Baramati, Maval, Amravati, Ahmednagar, Beed, and Nashik, with multiple claimants for each of these seats, according to sources in the alliance.
For instance, in the Pawar family bastion of Baramati, Vijay Shivtare, a former MLA from Maharashtra’s Purandar and a leader of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, announced this month that he would contest as an Independent.
Baramati is currently represented by Supriya Sule, daughter of NCP founder Sharad Pawar and cousin of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. The deputy CM is keen to field his wife Sunetra Pawar from this seat.
As a result, of the Mahayuti alliance partners, only the BJP has announced its first list of candidates. Its list released this month had 20 candidates — including Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur, Piyush Goyal from Mumbai North, and Pankaja Munde from Beed.
According to sources in the alliance, the partners have so far agreed on a 31:13:4 seat formula for the BJP, the Shiv Sena, and the Ajit Pawar’s NCP.
Speaking about seat-sharing talks Thursday, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told reporters that the alliance would declare all its candidates “very soon”.
“We have completed 80 percent of the seat sharing (talks). I’m confident that the remaining 20 percent will also be done very soon,” he said.
But the BJP’s partners are still unconvinced, with the Ajit Pawar-led NCP even seemingly threatening to “not follow alliance rules” unless the disagreement over Baramati is resolved.
“If Chief Minister (Eknath) Shinde doesn’t control Shivtare, then NCP will also not follow the alliance rule,” NCP leader Anand Paranjpe told the media Wednesday.
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Trouble in paradise?
According to various party sources, the alliance is currently facing seat-sharing troubles in at least six seats.
Shivtare met Chief Minister Eknath Shinde this week to stake claim over Baramati. The meeting came days after he announced he would contest the upcoming election as an Independent.
“I told Shinde that I have received a huge support of people to contest the Lok Sabha elections against the Pawars,” the former MLA told reporters after the meeting.
On his part, Ajit Pawar remained tightlipped about the development. “What I’ve been told is that Eknath Shinde and Shivtare have spoken. And finally, whether to listen to the leadership or not, is one’s own choice,” he told the media Thursday.
Another point of trouble is Amravati, where the BJP appears to be keen to field sitting Independent MP Navneet Kaur Rana. “Amravati will have a candidate on Lotus symbol. Rana has worked with the BJP for the last five years. So she can be thought about,” Fadnavis told the media Wednesday.
However, according to sources in the Shiv Sena, local leaders oppose the MP’s candidature saying she beat the party’s own candidate, Anandrao Adsul, in the 2019 general election.
Likewise, in Maval, the sitting Shiv Sena MP Shrirang Barne and Ajit Pawar faction’s Sunil Shelke are both hoping for a ticket. But local BJP workers are reportedly opposed to Barne’s candidature.
Then there are seats like Beed, Ahmednagar, and Nashik, where the BJP’s choice of candidates has caused rancour among the Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP.
In Beed and Ahmednagar, for instance, the BJP’s decision to announce the names of its Parli MLA Pankaja Munde and sitting MP Sujay Vikhe Patil, respectively, caused Ajit Pawar camp leaders Bajrang Sonavane and Nilesh Lanke to switch their allegiance to the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar.
On the other hand, Shiv Sena’s decision to field sitting MP Hemant Godse from Nashik has irked both the BJP and the Ajit Pawar faction, both keen on the seat.
Last week, hours after Eknath Shinde’s MP son Shrikant Shinde announced the party’s Nashik candidate, the BJP dismissed the claim and sent its leader Girish Mahajan to the constituency to review the situation. On his part, Mahajan said that seat-sharing talks were still ongoing and no final decision had been taken on the seat.
A Shiv Sena leader who didn’t wish to be named told ThePrint that these issues would be resolved after an upcoming meeting with the BJP’s central leadership in Delhi.
“Every party has the right to grow and that’s why such contradictory statements are coming out. But very soon issues will be resolved and the picture will be clearer once the Delhi meeting is over,” this leader said.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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