MUMBAI: The national and principal Opposition party, Congress, which heads the INDIA alliance, finds itself left high and dry by its alliance partners in the seat-sharing negotiations for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Initially, the Maharashtra Congress claimed a total of 20 to 22 Lok Sabha seats, positioning itself as the national big brother while negotiating the allocation of 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra with its alliance partners—the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP).
However, in reality, the Congress party was forced to eat humble pie, as it will now contest only 16 Lok Sabha seats, while the regional party Shiv Sena (UBT) will contest as many as 22 Lok Sabha seats, and NCP (SP) will contest 10 seats in Maharashtra.
“We aimed to contest the Sangli and Bhiwandi Lok Sabha seats, where we have a strong network and significant presence of workers. This would have increased our total contested seats to 18. However, both alliance partners laid claim to these disputed seats and even announced their candidates. We found ourselves with no option but to plead with the party leadership, yet immediate assistance seems unlikely,” said a senior Congress leader speaking on condition of anonymity.
Sharad Pawar convened a meeting of the Maha Vikas Aghadi at his residence, Silver Oak, to address the seat-sharing issue. “However, during the meeting, neither Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut nor Sharad Pawar showed any willingness to yield the Sangli and Bhiwandi Lok Sabha seats, respectively, despite our firm and flexible negotiations. Sanjay Raut’s demeanour was rather dismissive, declaring the seat-sharing discussion concluded and refusing to engage further on the Sangli seat. Consequently, we walked out of the meeting, seeing no hope of resolving the disputed seat issue,” the leader added.
Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole emphasised that Sangli is their traditional stronghold, where they stand a chance of victory, while Shiv Sena (UBT) lacks a presence. He argued that Sena (UBT) contesting the Sangli seat would hand over a LS seat to the BJP.
‘BJP made bow-&-arrow symbol disappear’
The Shiv Sena (UBT) has accused the BJP of making the bow-and-arrow symbol disappear from many parts of Maharashtra after the saffron party started claiming the seats that were earlier contested by the undivided Shiv Sena. In an editorial in party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ on Friday, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena (UBT) said the undivided Shiv Sena used to contest in 23 of the 48 seats in Maharashtra on its bow-and-arrow symbol. Sena (UBT), which is a part of the MVA, also claimed that the BJP high command was behind the move.