MUMBAI: The seat-sharing talks between the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance partners slowly veered back on track on Monday. After a tug-of-war that stretched for a long time, the Congress has finally agreed to concede the Vandre East and Ghatkopar West seats in Mumbai to the Shiv Sena (UBT). MVA insiders said that this has reduced the number of seats in Mumbai where the Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) are at loggerheads to two, viz Byculla and Versova. The total number of disputed seats has also come down to 25 from 30.
Going forward, the MVA has also fixed a final meeting to complete the seat-sharing agreement and if all goes according to the plan, it will declare 240 assembly seats on Tuesday.
The impasse was solved on account of informal talks between the senior leaders of the three parties. NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar is believed to have spoken to the Congress leadership to resolve the dispute. In the absence of the state Congress leadership, which is in New Delhi to attend the screening committee and Central Election Committee meetings, senior Congress leader Arif Naseem Khan is coordinating with Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray.
Besides the two seats in Mumbai, the Congress has also agreed to let go of two seats in Vidarbha to resolve the deadlock between the two parties. However, it is hell-bent on not conceding the Nagpur South seat to the Thackeray-led party. The disputed seats from Vidarbha were Armori, Ramtek, Kamthi, Nagpur South, Gadchiroli, Gondia, Bhandara, Chimur, Aheri, Warora and Dhamangaon Railway.
Congress leaders indicated that the tension has eased in both parties and they are expecting the remaining disagreements to be resolved in the next two days. “We have conceded two seats each from Mumbai and Vidarbha, as we don’t want this to be stretched further,” said a senior Congress leader. “The Sena (UBT) wants to field Uddhav Thackeray’s nephew Varun Sardesai, hence the leadership decided to hand over the Vandre East seat.”
State Congress president Nana Patole said they would again have a discussion on Tuesday to finalise the seat-sharing pact. “The screening committee of the party has cleared candidates for 96 seats,” he said. “Tomorrow we will hold talks with Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray and try to announce the first list of candidates.” Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that candidates for 210 of 288 seats were undisputed, and the lists would soon be released by the respective parties. “210 is a large number and our talks will lead to a resolution for the remaining seats,” he said.
Another Sena (UBT) leader, talking about the 36 seats in Mumbai, said that the party had decided to give up two seats in lieu of the two Vidarbha seats they were getting. “We will contest Vandre East and Byculla and have decided to give two seats to the Congress,” he said. “The Congress will get Colaba in place of Byculla. We will come down to 18 seats and concede 15 to 16 seats to the Congress. The rest will go to the Sharad Pawar-led NCP and the Samajwadi Party.” Interestingly, there are a few seats such as Mulund, Malabar Hill, Borivali and Vile Parle that no party in the MVA coalition wants to contest, revealed the leader.
Apart from the altercation between the Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT), the latter has a dispute with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP too over some seats in western Maharashtra and Marathwada. For instance, Patan in Satara, which has incumbent Shinde Sena MLA Shambhuraj Desai, has been claimed by both parties. Khanapur and Chinchwad too are bones of contention.
The parties are also at loggerheads over Sangola constituency in Solapur. The recent induction of NCP leader Deepak Salunkhe into the Sena (UBT) has not gone down well with the party, and Pawar has reportedly expressed his unhappiness about it. Salunkhe is likely to be the Sena (UBT) candidate while Aniket Deshmukh, grandson of former MLA Ganpatrao Deshmukh, is the NCP’s choice, as Pawar shared a very cordial relationship with Ganpatrao.
“There are a few more seats such as Anushakti Nagar, Kurla, Basmath, Kinwat, Jintoor on which both the parties have staked their claims,” added the leader. On Monday, a marathon meeting took place between Sena (UBT) leaders and NCP (SP) leaders to clear the disagreement. Sanjay Raut and state NCP (SP) chief Jayant Patil among other leaders attended the meeting at the Y B Chavan Centre.
The fight between the Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) over seat-sharing led to reports in the media about the latter having started a backdoor reconciliation with its former ally, the BJP. It was seen as a bid by the allies to put pressure on each other. Raut, however, rubbished the reports. “These are all planted stories and have no substance,” he said. “We cannot join hands with the people who have crushed the self-respect of Maharashtra. There will be no compromise on the pride of the state. Reconciliation with the BJP is like joining hands with Aurangzeb and Afzal Khan.”
Meanwhile, the Congress on Monday appointed senior leader Balasaheb Thorat as mediator or negotiator from the party who will meet Sharad Pawar as well as Thackeray separately on Tuesday morning.
“The leaders are of the view that they need to do some damage control after publicly bickering against each other. This will happen only if they show unity by declaring the formula together,” said a MVA insider. “Since the ruling allies are declaring their seats independently, they see it as a good opportunity to put up a united front, which will send out a positive message to the people.”
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