Mumbai: In early June, soon after the general election results were announced and the Mahavikas Aghadi emerged triumphant in Maharashtra, the tri-party alliance of the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction), and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction) said that they were already in the process of preparing for the state assembly election. The parties claimed that they already had a seat-sharing formula worked out and were beginning campaigns immediately. It was still early, but the parties wanted to send a clear message of “unity and preparedness” to voters.
Four months later, with less than a month to go before the state assembly elections, the alliance is still struggling with seat allocation.
Over the last weekend, the Congress and Thackeray’s Sena reached an impasse, and today, a meeting is scheduled to be held in the presence of Sharad Pawar, who is considered a binding factor for the three parties.
All three parties performed well in the parliamentary elections, with the Congress winning 13 seats, Thackeray’s party securing nine, and Pawar’s NCP obtaining eight seats. While the Congress made significant gains in the state, it was particularly a boost for Thackeray and Pawar’s party, considering that both parties had experienced disintegration in the past year, with most of their MPs and MLAs jumping ship. The two parties barely got an opportunity to get their party symbols known to their voters.
Thackeray, who views his party one which is on equal footing with the Congress, has requested a 100:100:88 seat-sharing formula for Sena (UBT), NCP (SP), and Congress, respectively. However, the Congress has been adamant, seeking close to 125 seats for itself. Seat-sharing discussions reached a stalemate last week after Congress state party head Nana Patole refused to budge from his stand. A walkout was staged, and Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut reportedly even threatened to break the alliance – claims which have been denied by senior leaders of both sides. A section of media, mostly favouring the right-wing alliance, claimed that Raut had a secret meeting with Union home minister Amit Shah. The claim was vehemently denied by both Raut and Congress.
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Vidarbha
Patole, a leader from Nagpur in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region, has been demanding a significant share of seats from this area for the Congress party. Vidarbha has been an important electoral region for the Congress, and the party wants to ensure it contests from most seats here. Thackeray, however, has requested some crucial seats, such as Warora in Chandrapur district or Daryapur in Amravati district, both of which are currently held by the Congress. When Thackeray pressed him on the seats, Patole reportedly became aggressive. This aggression led to a showdown between Patole and Raut, who were at the meeting. The Congress, on the other hand, has expressed a desire to contest from Sena’s stronghold of Nashik, an idea which the latter opposes.
Since the MVA meetings did not bear any fruit and Patole has been looked at as the primary hindrance, the talks will be carried out by another senior leader of the party, Balasaheb Thorat.
The Congress meeting that began late in the evening yesterday in Delhi. Photo: By arrangement.
The last day to file nominations is October 29. So far, only the BJP has announced the list of the 99 seats it will contest in the state. The other two parties of the Mahayuti – Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction) and NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) – are yet to announce their candidates. Like the Mahavikas Aghadi, the Mahayuti has also experienced its share of disagreements and discontent since the parliamentary elections. The media, favouring the ruling parties, has been utilised effectively to focus on the problems facing the MVA.
The meeting today, October 22, with Pawar is an outcome of many unexpected changes that were seen with both the Congress and Thackeray’s Sena. The Congress was to hold a Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting on October 20 but it was cancelled last minute. Thackeray had on the other carried out a meeting at Matoshree in Mumbai. This meeting was sudden and Congress decided to wait it out.
Raut, speaking to the press on October 21, acknowledged that there have been differences but played it down to only a seat or two against the anticipated 12 seats. He claimed some sacrifices will have to be made in the “national interest”. Similar situation had risen in the parliamentary election too, where the Sena had finally given up on three very crucial seats – Ramtek, Amravati and Kolhapur to the Congress.
The leader of opposition and senior Congressman Vijay Wadettiwar has accused the BJP of creating an illusion that the MVA is on the verge of a breakup. “The alliance is as strong as Fevicol,” he told media in Delhi. The CEC has now been scheduled to be held on October 25, after the Congress and Thackeray’s Sena meets Pawar in Mumbai.
