Raut, Patole fight in Maha MVA slugfest over 26 seats

Sources said that in the seat sharing meeting, Raut asked for seats where the party has neither candidates nor a presence.
Raut, Patole fight in Maha MVA slugfest over 26 seats
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MUMBAI: Differences among opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance partners, particularly between Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT), surfaced on Friday over “disputed” seats in the Maharashtra assembly elections.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut was upset over what he called the “adamant conduct” of state Congress chief Nana Patole for not conceding seats to alliance partners. Raut reportedly told Congress leaders that if Patole continued to participate in seat-sharing talks, then he would stay away.

Sources said that in the seat sharing meeting, Raut asked for seats where the party has neither candidates nor a presence. “Congress has a presence and candidates as well. So why should it throw away the seats for the sake of it? By conceding seats to Shiv Sena (UBT) means losing seats. That party should understand the seriousness of this election,” said a senior Congress leader.

He said that in the meeting, the Congress demanded that the alliance partners should be able to explain about their candidates and their influence in any assembly seat that they like to contest.

Congress sources said there are at least 26 disputed seats and most of them are from Vidarbha and Mumbai metropolitan region. Vidarbha is the Congress base, so Uddhav and Sharad Pawar should not insist on the seats just for the sake of showing their presence.

Late on Thursday evening, Nana Patole said that a list of 20-25 assembly constituencies where MVA partners have overlapping claims will be sent to the leaderships of each party to resolve the stalemate.

Patole told reporters that the MVA leaders involved in seat-sharing talks had a final meeting on Thursday. He said attempts were being made to declare the seat-sharing arrangement for all 288 constituencies by October 18-19. In the Lok Sabha elections, the MVA performed impressively winning 30 of the 48 seats in the state.

Assembly polls in the state will be held on November 20 and votes will be counted on November 23.

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