LS polls: MVA seals Maharashtra seat deal; here’s who’ll contest Sangli, Bhiwandi

After palpable tension for days over the future of the Opposition alliance in Maharashtra, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) finally announced its seat-sharing deal on Tuesday (April 9), with 10 days to go for the Lok Sabha polls to begin. The Shiv Sena (UBT) will contest 21 Lok Sabha seats, the Congress 17, and the NCP (SP) 10 seats in the state.

The Lok Sabha polls will be held in the state in five phases, from April 19 to May 20. After weeks of negotiations, NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray, and state Congress president Nana Patole announced the poll pact for the 48 parliamentary seats in the state at a press conference in Mumbai.

Battle over Bhiwandi, Sangli ‘resolved’

Shiv Sena (UBT) will contest four of Mumbai’s six seats, including North West, South Central, South, and South East, while the Congress gets the other two, North and North Central.

The Bhiwandi and Sangli seats, which had been a bone of contention between the allies, have been given to the NCP(SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT), respectively. With all three allies staking a claim to these seats, the alliance had been at risk, with Thackeray going ahead and declaring candidates for 16 seats, including Sangli, in the last week of March.

Following that, Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi walked out of the INDIA bloc and declared candidates for eight seats. Ambedkar, the grandson of BR Ambedkar, complained that Pawar and Thackeray were “not serious” about the alliance and that he had lost faith in them.

One aim

Patole said the issue was now “resolved”. “The aim is to throw out the BJP. We will work unitedly towards this,” he added.

“There comes a time when we have to move on... we have reached this deal with the aim of winning the election… now the people will decide,” said Thackeray.

Pawar said his party will soon announce the remaining candidates for its share of seats.