MVA finalises seat deal, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena to contest 21, Congress 17, Sharad Pawar group 10

Animesh Singh

New Delhi, April 9

After days of intense discussions, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance on Tuesday managed to seal a seat-sharing deal in Maharashtra just 10 days before the first phase of the Lok Sabha poll, with Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) bagging the lion’s share of 21 seats, followed by 17 for the Congress and 10 for the Sharad Pawar group’s NCP (SP).

For the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, the elections will be held in five phases, beginning April 19 and ending on May 20. After Uttar Pradesh, which has the highest number of 80 seats, Maharashtra comes second with 48 and holds the key to the fortunes of both the BJP-led NDA and the INDIA bloc in the elections.

The MVA reached the seat deal after it abandoned talks with Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), which had initially demanded five seats and later eight. An early indication of the MVA-VBA talks having failed was seen after the Congress fielded its candidate against Ambedkar from Akola.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the VBA had managed to garner 6 per cent vote share after it had entered into a pact with Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM and eaten into the Congress-NCP’s vote, leading to the alliance’s defeat in at least 10 seats.

The seat-sharing arrangement was announced in a joint press conference in Mumbai on Tuesday morning, where Uddhav, Sharad, state Congress chief Nana Patole and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan as well as Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut were present.

The contentious seats of Bhiwandi and Sangli, on which all three MVA partners had been staking claim, finally went to the NCP (SP) and Sena (UBT), respectively.

Asserting that the issue had been “resolved”, Patole said party workers would work to ensure victories of the MVA candidates from these seats.