Likely LS seats, while alliance holds crucial meet in Delhi

Unease within Maharashtra's ruling alliance over Lok Sabha seat-sharing, with BJP wanting 34 seats. Leaders from BJP, Shiv Sena, and NCP fail to reach consensus.

There is much unease within the three-party ruling alliance in Maharashtra regarding seat-sharing numbers for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Key leaders from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction) and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) held a crucial meeting in New Delhi on the matter on Friday. Although the meeting continued till late night, no consensus was reached.

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Chief minister Eknath Shinde and his two deputies -- Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar -- flew to Delhi on Friday evening for discussions with union home minister Amit Shah and the party’s national chief JP Nadda at the former’s official residence.

The seat-sharing pact could not be actualised as both Shinde and Pawar have expressed unhappiness over the number of seats allocated to their parties – it has become a bone of contention between the ruling parties. BJP is intent on 34 of 48 seats for itself, with the rest marked for the allies, which both Shinde and Pawar are unwilling to accept.

“We are going to New Delhi to discuss the seat-sharing details and finalize the formula,” said NCP working president Praful Patel before taking off for the capital along with the party’s state president Sunil Tatkare.

Meanwhile, anxiety prevailed in the Shiv Sena as MLA Sanjay Shirsat criticised the BJP, stating that if Eknath Shinde had not rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership, BJP would still be in opposition despite its 105 MLAs. He underscored that the power dynamics are mutual – BJP is in power because of Shinde and vice versa.

“If Eknath Shinde had not rebelled, all of BJP’s 105 MLAs would have been in opposition,” Shirsat said.

Shirsat’s comments were in response to Fadnavis’s remarks on Thursday that Shinde was made the CM despite BJP holding the sizable number of MLAs. “We were happy to make Shinde saheb the CM because we were happy that real Sena has come to us. We will fight the elections together,” the deputy chief minister had told reporters on Thursday.