Maharashtra polls: Nana Patole and Sanjay Raut spar over seat sharing

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance meeting to discuss seat-sharing distribution became heated when senior leaders from Congress and Shiv Sena (MVA) exchanged sharp words. MVA insiders revealed that state Congress president Nana Patole and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut argued over the allocation of seats in the Vidarbha region, where both parties are vying for maximum representation.

Congress has staked a claim to more than 45 seats, while Shiv Sena (UBT) contends that this would leave fewer than 17 seats for them and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar), significantly less than their desired number of contested seats.

The Vidarbha region comprises 62 seats, and Congress is aiming to secure a majority, citing a perceived shift in the electoral mood. The party recently won five of the ten seats in the Lok Sabha elections, having contested seven.

Given their recent success, Congress is reluctant to relinquish seats where they feel confident of victory. Consequently, Monday’s MVA leaders’ meeting stretched into a marathon seven-hour session. Insiders reported that consensus has been reached on over 125 seats, with no remaining issues regarding seat allocation in the North Maharashtra region.

The MVA leaders are set to continue their discussions on Tuesday, aiming to finalise the maximum number of seats each party will contest.

Patole stated, “We are not in a hurry and are trying to declare between 175 to 200 seats after the Dussehra festival.”