MUMBAI: The BJP on Wednesday announced its candidates for 20 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, bringing an end to speculation over a rift in the Mahayuti alliance.
The BJP will contest 30 seats, leaving 11 for the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and seven for Ajit Pawar’s NCP, according to highly-placed sources.
The allocation of the remaining seats is likely to be declared either late on Thursday evening or Friday.
The BJP’s insistence on fielding candidates from 32 seats was disturbing their alliance partners' arithmetic, therefore, the seat sharing formula had to be reworked multiple times, sources in the NDA said.
“BJP’s alliance partners NCP (AP) will get seven seats — four for its sitting MPs and three additional seats Gadchiroli, Osmanabad and Parbhani, while the Shiv Sena (Shinde) has 13 MPs, but two of its sitting lawmakers will be denied the ticket where the BJP will contest. The two seats of the Shiv Sena (Shinde) that the BJP is eyeing are South Mumbai where state assembly speaker Rahul Narvekar is likely to be fielded and Thane or Kalyan,” said a source, requesting anonymity.
He further added that the BJP was hopeful of getting Kalyan where it has strong chances to win, but Eknath Shinde is not in favour of denying ticket to his son and sitting Shiv Sena MP Dr Shreekant Shinde.
“Chances are Thane may be given to the BJP. Former minister Ganesh Naik’s name has been discussed as the BJP candidate there. The discussion is on and the final decision will be taken soon,” he added. A senior NCP leader said that after meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi, they had planned another meeting in Delhi for finetuning the seat sharing, but for some reason, the scheduled visit got cancelled.
“We are in touch with the state BJP leadership and in touch with the BJP’s top leadership over the phone. Most of the differences are ironed out and by Thursday evening or Friday, the seat sharing formula of Mahayuti in Maharashtra will be declared,” he added.