In Maharashtra, there is a tussle over seat sharing among the constituent parties of the India alliance.
Shiv Sena had recently staked claim on a total of 23 seats and said that Congress will have to start from zero in Maharashtra. After this came the turn of Congress.
The country’s oldest party has started its preparations for 22 seats in Maharashtra. After a meeting between party president Mallikarjun Kharge and top leaders of the state, preparations have been started to field candidates for 22 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats. This meeting was held on Friday.
At the meeting, Congress leaders from Maharashtra discussed the current political scenario in the state with Kharge and gave him a report on the seats considered to be strongholds for the party.
According to sources, some leaders suggested that Congress should contest on 30 seats in the state in the Lok Sabha elections.
Apart from this, sources said that one of the top leaders suggested that the party should contest elections on at least 22 seats where it has a good chance of winning.
According to a News18 report, party insiders said that the issue of seat sharing with NCP’s Sharad Pawar faction and Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena was also discussed.
Congress leaders are said to have told Kharge that after Ajit Pawar’s rebellion in the NCP and the split in the Shiv Sena caused by Eknath Shinde, no ally party has control over its traditional election symbol.
Only Congress has complete control over its election symbol. Sources say Kharge and state leaders are considering the possibility of exchanging some seats with allies depending on the situation in each constituency.
The leaders are also said to have expressed displeasure over Shiv Sena-UBT leader Sanjay Raut publicly announcing that his party wants 23 seats in the Lok Sabha election seat-sharing.
Meanwhile, Kharge has advised party leaders of Maharashtra not to make any such statement regarding alliance or seat sharing.
The Congress high command is scheduled to meet Shiv Sena-UBT and NCP’s Sharad Pawar faction next week to decide on the seat-sharing formula.
In the 2019 general elections, Congress contested 25 seats, but won only one seat. NCP had contested 19 seats and won four. At the same time, Shiv Sena was in alliance with BJP, it contested 23 seats and won 18.