NEW DELHI: Maharashtra will be the first state to settle seat-sharing negotiations among INDIA bloc parties, the Congress said on Tuesday after concluding talks with Shiv Sena (UBT) and Nationalist Congress Party. After the two-and-a-half-hour meeting, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said they discussed “every single seat” and a consensus was reached on the division of the state’s 48 seats for the Lok Sabha elections.
“All the members of Maha Vikas Aghadi came out of the meeting smiling. We agreed on most points. I want to assure everyone that we will fight elections together. We have no qualms about seat sharing,” said Raut. The AICC in-charge of Maharashtra Ramesh Chennithala said the seats would be announced within days. “There is no disagreement among the parties. Maharashtra will be the first state to announce the seat-sharing arrangement,” he said.
Terming the negotiations positive, NCP leader Jitendra Awhad said: “There was a discussion on all the seats. The meeting was more successful than expected.” Later in the day, Samajwadi Party leaders Ramgopal Yadav and Javed Ali Khan met Congress’s Mukul Wasnik, Salman Khurshid, and Ashok Gehlot. However, sources said the meeting lasted only a few minutes. Khurshid said the formula for seat allocation will be decided in the next few days. Yadav said the meeting was held in a ‘very positive environment’ and more developments will take place on January 12.