Maharashtra Elections 2024: MVA to finalise seat-sharing today? All eyes on key Sena-Congress-NCP meet

The MVA meeting in Mumbai will be attended by top leaders including Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Uddhav Thackeray and NCP(SP)'s Sharad Pawar. (File Photo: PTI)

After days of bickering and hectic discussions, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) of Opposition parties in Maharashtra is likely to finalise its seat-sharing for the upcoming Assembly elections on Tuesday.

A key meeting of alliance leaders, including Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray, AICC Maharashtra in-charge Ramesh Chennithala, and Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) chief Sharad Pawar, is scheduled to be held in Mumbai today as the MVA races against time to iron out its differences and put up a united front against the ruling NDA.

The meeting comes days after seat-sharing talks between the Shiv Sena and Congress hit an impasse, prompting the allies to approach Sharad Pawar, the binding force in the MVA, to break the deadlock. On Monday, the Shiv Sena hinted at a thaw with party leader Sanjay Raut claiming that the alliance partners had reached a consensus on 210 of the 288 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly.

Last week, Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) called off their internal meetings on allocation of seats over a deadlock on candidates selection. Media reports also suggested that the BJP was in touch with the Shiv Sena (UBT) as the latter threatened to walk out of the MVA and contest all 288 seats independently.

Differences between Congress and the Sena crept up over the former's insistence to contest 125 seats as part of the alliance while Uddhav's party pushed for 100 seats each for itself and Congress while setting aside the remaining 88 seats for the NCP(SP).

A key point of contention, reports The Indian Express, was the Sena’s insistence on fielding its candidates from some key Vidarbha seats where the Congress claims to have an upper hand. Notably, it was the Congress which had emerged on top in the Lok Sabha elections held earlier this year.

Of the 30 Lok Sabha seats that the MVA won in the polls earlier this year, the Congress bagged the lion’s share of 13 seats, the Shiv Sena (UBT) 9 and the NCP 8. The NDA, on the other hand, settled at 18 seats with the BJP winning 9 seats, the Shiv Sena 7 and the NCP(AP) 1.

The last date for filing of nominations for the Assembly elections is October 30 while polling is scheduled to be held on November 20. The counting of votes will be taken up on November 23.