MVA party high commands will decide remaining 40 seats: Nana Patole after seat-sharing spats

Maha Vikas Aghadi faces internal seat-sharing disputes in Maharashtra ahead of elections, with high commands to make final decisions.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi, Maharashtra’s Opposition coalition, still needs to resolve internal differences regarding almost 40 of the State’s 288 Assembly seats ahead of the upcoming election, Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole told The Hindu on Saturday. The seat-sharing committee has completed its work, he said, adding that a final call on the remaining seats will be taken by the high commands of all three major parties in the coalition: the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), and Nationalist Congress Party (SP).

Mr. Patole is in the eye of a storm, with the Shiv Sena UBT threatening to pull the plug on seat-sharing talks if the State Congress chief continues to helm them. Asked about his role in the stalemate, he told The Hindu: “I have communicated whatever I had to, to the party high command. I have given them the details about the seat sharing talks.”

The differences had emerged primarily over the seats in Vidarbha, and a few other areas. Mr. Patole said that the Congress had already let go of many seats in the Konkan region, the coastal Maharashtra belt where the Shiv Sena UBT is predominant. “In Vidarbha, we are saying that we will decimate the BJP. We can win almost 50 seats. The BJP comes to power in Maharashtra because of its performance in Vidarbha. We will dent it there and will finish off the BJP in the State,” Mr. Patole said. “So we had been telling Sena that we want to fight in more seats from that region. We are currently getting 42 to 46 seats. We are looking at getting 50,” he said. The Hindu has previously reported about Mr. Patole’s spats with Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut during the committee’s deliberations.

A day after Uddhav Thackeray warned that “one shouldn’t stretch to the point where things will break”, the Congress high command sent Maharashtra in-charge Ramesh Chennithala to Mumbai on Saturday to placate the Sena (UBT) chief. Mr. Chennithala, who also met NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday, said there were no differences within the MVA and claimed that the seat-sharing talks would conclude in two days.

Mr. Patole said that it was now up to the high commands of all the three parties to take the discussion ahead. “Our work is over. The seat-sharing committee has held several meetings and we have resolved seat-sharing issues in most of the seats. Now, whatever seats remain, the senior leaders will sit and decide about them. It will be our central leadership, Sharad Pawar, and Uddhav Thackeray who will take a call,” he said.

Vidarbha is home to 62 of the State’s 288 Vidhan Sabha seats. Traditionally, the party which performs well in Vidarbha is the one that forms the government in Mumbai. During the Lok Sabha election earlier this year, the Congress outperformed all other parties in Vidarbha. The Shiv Sena (UBT), however, does not want to give up its traditional strongholds in the region.