Maharashta assembly polls: Mahayuti has a week to resolve 90 disputed seats

MUMBAI: A day after Amit Shah discussed the election strategy of the ruling alliance, key leaders from the three ruling parties held several rounds of meetings and discussed disputed seats on Thursday. A decision on about 90 seats is yet to be taken and state leaders have been directed to take a call on them in a week.
The three ruling parties—the BJP, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP—have arrived at a seat-sharing consensus on over 195 seats for the assembly polls, most of them held by their sitting MLAs. Though some of these will be exchanged and, in some cases, candidates will be borrowed from allies, this decision will be announced only after the heads of the three parties give the nod. According to ruling alliance leaders, in 21 seats there is a tussle between the NCP and the BJP while 19 constituencies have claimants from both the Sena and the NCP.
“The coordination committee, comprising leaders from the three parties, first met in the presence of deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis,” said a BJP leader. “They were reportedly apprised of the outcome of the meetings with Amit Shah and his message to fight the election as one unit and avoid the infighting that was a part of the Lok Sabha polls. The parties and their leaders have also been directed to concentrate on the strike rate instead of fighting over the number of seats.”
The leader said that before the meeting, the BJP’s Maharashtra in-charge Bhupendra Yadav held meetings with party leaders and discussed programmes in the party’s constituencies. “The meeting was followed by a meeting between CM Shinde and his two deputies late in the evening,” he said.
The parties, after the consensus on over 195 seats, are expected to release their first lists of candidates during Navratri in the first or second week of October. The BJP, which will see less rebellion than its two allies, is expected to release its first list of over 40 candidates in the first phase. Ajit Pawar is facing the threat of rebellion, as some of his sitting MLAs have met the NCP’s rival faction under Sharad Pawar. Shinde too is in a similar predicament, and both the parties are likely to delay the announcement of candidates in constituencies with multiple claimants. The candidates for the seats where there is a possibility of rebellion are expected to be announced late, said a leader from Shinde-led Sena.
The three parties have also decided to fit the independents and their smaller allies in their quota. “For instance, the BJP will give a couple of seats to the Vinay Kore-led Jansurajya Paksha, and one seat each to the RPI led by Ramdas Athawale and Rastriya Samaj Paksha led by Mahadev Jankar,” the party leader quoted above said. “Apart from the endeavour to woo key leaders from opposition parties, Shah also has asked the ruling parties to convince the independents supporting them to fight on the parties’ symbols.”
Shah, who held four meetings with BJP office-bearers in four regions early this week, will also hold a meeting with the party’s Mumbai unit on Tuesday to discuss the poll strategy for Mumbai. According to BJP leaders, he is expected to hold another meeting with the key leaders from the three ruling parties. “He will take stock of the progress on the strategy finalised during his Maharashtra visit this week,” said another BJP leader.
Meanwhile, Ajit Pawar’s NCP is staking a claim on four Mumbai seats, while the two other parties are likely to get half each of the remaining city seats.