Maharashtra Assembly polls: Eknath Shinde, Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar hold seat-sharing talks; consensus on 173 seats

The final seat sharing will be sealed after another two to three meetings.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar held seat-sharing talks in Nagpur for the upcoming state assembly polls, which are likely to be held in October-November.

The meeting, which lasted for around three hours as per BJP sources, was held on Saturday. "Yesterday's meeting was in line with the previous two-three rounds of initial discussions that took place.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced that it will fight the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections under collective leadership, moving away from its previous strategy of centring campaigns around a single figure.

This strategic shift indicates that Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will no longer enjoy the sole leadership he has held since 2014. The party aims to appoint leaders from diverse communities to broaden its support base.

The decision to adopt a collective leadership approach comes as the BJP seeks to strengthen its position across various regions and communities in Maharashtra. The new structure is expected to include prominent figures such as Pankaja Munde, Ashish Shelar, Ashok Chavan, and Ram Shinde heading different committees.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said on Saturday that the Mahayuti alliance has completed its first round of seat-sharing talks for the upcoming Assembly poll and his party, which is growing in strength, is aiming to contest 60 seats.

Sources from the NCP said consensus has been arrived for 173 seats, with BJP getting the maximum share, followed by Shiv Sena of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the Ajit Pawar-led party.

The remaining 115 seats will be finalised soon in a meeting of Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule, CM Shinde as well as senior NCP leaders Sunil Tatkare and Praful Patel, they added.