MUMBAI: Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has been asked by the top leadership of BJP to drop some of the sitting MLAs as there is huge anti-incumbency against these MLAs and Mahayuti cannot afford to lose such seats.
According to the highly placed source, Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde recently attended Union Minister Amit Shah's home department meeting about state security and Naxalism where after the meeting both the leaders met and discussed the seat sharing for upcoming state polls. Interestingly, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis who is the Home Minister of Maharashtra was absent for this meeting.
Sources said that in the meeting, CM Eknath Shinde submitted the 120 seats list to the top leadership of the BJP and demanded that they should be given tickets if Mahayauti is serious about coming back into power.
“In the meeting, Shinde also argued that there is huge anti-incumbency against the BJP. Like Lok Sabha elections, BJP’s seats will come down drastically if BJP contests more seats. So, BJP should not contest more seats and give it to Shiv Sena which has performed better than the BJP and Ajit Pawar-led NCP. Shinde is doing good work so he should be projected as Chief Minister face also. Shinde has promised to extend and provide the resources to all candidates of Mahayuti if he is projected as chief minister face in state polls,” said a person who is privy to this development.
However, the top leadership did not commit to the number of seats but told Shinde that his party would not get more than 90 seats in state polls.
“Besides, Shinde was also handed over the internal survey of the BJP where there is huge anti-incumbency against Shiv Sena’s MLAs and if they were given tickets, then there are huge chances that these MLAs will lose the election badly," said a source who requested anonymity.
"Therefore, Shinde was asked to drop these MLAs and replace them with young and fresh faces. However, Shinde was reluctant to do this because this move would backfire and set the wrong message during the elections,” according to the source.
The source further added that due to this development, Shinde is not happy and he even cancelled one cabinet meeting citing health reasons.
