MUMBAI: Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena is set to fight on 21 out of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in upcoming elections, with Congress fighting on 17 and the Nationalist Congress Party getting the remaining 10.
The Congress gave up its claim on the contentious Sangli and Bhiwandi seats, which will now be contested by the Sena (UBT) and the NCP (SP), respectively.
Besides Mumbai North, some of the main seats fought by the Congress Party are Nandurbar, Dhule, Akola, Amaravati, Nagpur, Chandrapur, Nanded, Jalna, Mumbai North Central, Pune, Latur, Solapur and Kolhapur.
Some of the seats given to NCP are Baramati, Shirur, Satara, Bhiwandi, Wardha, Dindori, Madha, Raver, Ahmednagar South and Beed.
Shiv Sena will fight on seats such as Jalgaon, Parbhani, Nashik, Palghar, Kalyan, Thane, Raigarh, Maval, Ratnagiri, Sambhaji Nagar, Shirdi, Sangli, Hingoli and Yavatmal-Washim.
Seat sharing talks among the three allies were thrown into disarray when Shiv Sena announced candidates to 21 out of the 48 seats, including seats such as Sangli, Mumbai South Central and Mumbai North West, which were also eyed by the Congress.
Maharashtra Congress party president Nana Patole said that the Congress party has played a major role in India's independence and this time, also, it has decided to make the big heart by conceding few seats to alliance partners.
He said that there is no dispute over any Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra now and expected that all its workers will transfer votes to each other candidates in Lok Sabha elections.
“Our main target is to defeat the BJP and its dictatorship. We have to safeguard the constitution that BJP plans to subvert and save the democracy as well in India. Democracy is in danger therefore the Congress is ready to sacrifice like it has done for the independence of the country,” Patole said.
The front was formed in Maharashtra, India after Shiv Sena and its ally Bharatiya Janata Party could not come to an understanding on sharing power, particularly with regard to the issue of rotating the post of chief minister.
As a result, Shiv Sena -- led by Uddhav Thackeray, walked away from the decades-old alliance and tied up with its long-time rivals Indian National Congress and Nationalist Congress Party or NCP.
While the government so formed was not expected to last very long, it surprisingly survived for three years, and was brought down by a rebellion led by Shiv Sena leader from Thane, Eknath Shinde.
Another split, this time in NCP, further enriched the new, BJP-led alliance later that year. This was led by Ajit Pawar, the nephew of party president Sharad Pawar.
Eventually, the speaker of the Maharashtra assembly recognized the breakaway group of Shiv Sena as the real Shiv Sena.
With inputs from Sudhir Suryawanshi.
