Mumbai: With less than four weeks to go for polling in Maharashtra, Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) said Wednesday it has settled on a seat-sharing formula that would allow each of the alliance’s three main constituents to contest at least 85 of the state’s 288 assembly seats.
Earlier in the day, the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) released its first list of 65 candidates with party leader Sanjay Raut telling reporters the seat-sharing talks within the MVA are “going on smoothly”.
“At this point what we can say is that the formula is 85-85-85 where we are on same page; on the rest of the seats, we will be starting our talks with smaller allies like the Left, PWP (Peasants and Workers Party of India), SP (Samajwadi Party), etc.,” said Raut, a Rajya Sabha MP and close confidant of party chief and former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray.
On the first list of candidates declared by Shiv Sena (UBT), Raut said it “has some corrections”. “We will see what kind of corrections we can make. I don’t know what led to this administrative mistake. We will look into it.” He said some of the seats for which candidates had been declared may be in the kitty of the PWP or the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), adding that discussions on these seats will continue.
In its first list, the party rewarded many who stuck with it during and after the 2022 split, while also fielding some unexpected picks from key seats.
For instance, Kedar Dighe has been pitted against Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde from Thane’s Kopri-Pachpakhadi seat. Kedar is the nephew of Shinde’s mentor and Sena’s once strongman in Thane, Anand Dighe.
Another example is that of Varun Sardesai, cousin of Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA and former state minister Aaditya Thackeray. An active worker of the Yuva Sena, youth wing of the Shiv Sena (UBT), Sardesai will contest his maiden election from Bandra East constituency, which elected Zeeshan Siddique of the Congress to the assembly in 2019.
Aaditya, meanwhile, will contest against Sandeep Deshpande of uncle Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) in a bid to retain his seat—Worli.
Similarly, former MP Rajan Vichare who unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year, has been fielded from the Thane seat.
Also Read: In Maharashtra, Congress & Sena (UBT) rift exposed amid war of words, deadlock over seat sharing