The Congress, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena faction and the Nationalist Congress Party group led by Sharad Pawar have agreed to contest 85 seats each in the Maharashtra Assembly elections, the alliance leaders announced on Wednesday.
The negotiations for the remaining seats are still on, PTI reported.
The polling for the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly will take place in a single phase on November 20. The counting of votes will happen on November 23, alongside that of the Jharkhand elections.
Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Sanjay Raut, however, said that there was consensus on 270 seats out of the 288 constituencies, PTI reported.
The Samajwadi Party, the Peasants and Workers Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India and the Aam Aadmi Party will be included in the final seat-sharing plan, Raut was quoted as saying.
The constituents of the state’s ruling Mahayuti alliance have released at least one candidate list so far. The coalition comprises Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led faction of the Shiv Sena, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party group.
In the 2019 Maharashtra polls, the BJP won 105 seats in the Assembly. The undivided Shiv Sena, its ally at the time, won 56 seats.
The undivided Nationalist Congress Party won 54 seats while its ally, the Congress, won 44 seats.
After the poll results, the Thackeray-led undivided Shiv Sena quit its alliance with the BJP and formed the state government along with a united Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition government collapsed in June 2022 when a group of Shiv Sena MLAs led by Shinde rebelled and formed a government with the BJP. This split the Shiv Sena into two factions, with one led by Thackeray and the other by Shinde who became the chief minister.
A year later, Ajit Pawar, along with several Nationalist Congress Party MLAs, also joined the ruling coalition. This split the Nationalist Congress Party, with one faction supporting Sharad Pawar and the other backing his nephew Ajit Pawar.
In the Lok Sabha elections this year, the first major polls in the state since these developments, the Maha Vikas Aghadi won 30 of the 48 seats in the state. The remaining 18 seats were won by the ruling Mahayuti alliance.
The two alliances each secured a 43% vote share in the general election.
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