Anticipating headwinds, and a multitude of rebel candidates, the Mahayuti alliance veers around to a seat adjustment plan in Maharashtra Premium

Maharashtra's Mahayuti alliance finalizes seat sharing, avoiding new CM face, with BJP contesting fewer seats than in 2019.

Seat sharing arrangements between various constituents of the Mahayuti alliance of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Maharashtra are almost final, with a call having been taken to not project a new face as Chief Minister, and incumbent Eknath Shinde occupying his current position through the campaign for the Assembly election.

In the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, there is to be a three-way split of seats in both the ruling Mahayuti and Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliances.

In the Mahayuti, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sources said, the party will contest up to 150 Assembly seats, with the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) slated to get between 80-90 seats, and the rest going to the Nationalist Congress Party-Ajit Pawar (NCP-Ajit Pawar).

The number of seats being fought by the BJP is less than the 164 it fought in 2019, when it fought in an alliance with a united Shiv Sena under Uddhav Thackeray. BJP had then won 105 out of 164 seats, with the Shiv Sena winning 56 out of the 126 seats it had fought.

“The situation is very different now compared with 2019, with Eknath Shinde’s Sena expected to aggressively take on Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, especially in the Konkan belt,” a senior source in the BJP said.

Apart from this, in terms of the campaign narrative, the Mahayuti is banking heavily on the State government’s Ladki Bahin Yojana providing income support for women, and Mr. Shinde is the face behind the scheme. Former CM and current Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis’s characterisation of himself as “Abhimanyu”, having entered a “chakravyuh (complex maze) of political challenges” at a recent media event points to the fact that the BJP is not keen on settling the leadership situation within its own ranks, and certainly not for the alliance.

BJP leaders assert that, unlike the 2024 Lok Sabha election, much effort is also being made to ensure coordination between the party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which was upset at the inclusion of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP in the Mahayuti. “Apart from Atul Limaya-ji, the RSS’s joint general secretary, who is helping us coordinate efforts for the Assembly polls, V. Satish, national joint general secretary (organisation) of the BJP is also being involved on behalf of the BJP for this purpose,” a senior source in the BJP said.