NEW DELHI: As the standoff over seat-sharing between the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) continues, the Congress leadership on Monday deployed state legislature party leader Balasaheb Thorat to mediate on the contentious seats.
Sources said Thorat will meet NCP (SP) leader Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday afternoon to iron out differences. The decision was taken at the Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting, held in the capital on Monday. The meeting, chaired by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kahrge was to finalise candidates for the assembly polls.
Sources said that though 15 seats are in contention, the Congress is likely to announce the first list of candidates on October 23. Besides Kharge, the meeting was attended by former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal and state leaders among others.
Sources said that the several leaders highlighted the friction over 12 seats in Vidarbha, Nasik, and some other constituencies. The state leaders were of the view that the Shiv Sena (UBT) was not cooperating in the seat-sharing talks and were being “unreasonable” in their demand over a few crucial seats. Speaking to the media after the meeting, AICC Maharashtra in charge Ramesh Chennithala said the party would hold another CEC meeting on October 25. “Final decisions will be taken on 25,” he said.
Speaking to the media, Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole said that the party discussed 96 seats and remaining seats will be discussed soon. “We have discussed 96 seats today. There were some seats in the discussion, but we did not talk about them. We will talk to Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray tomorrow. About the sharing problem on 30-40 seats, we will find a way for it,” he said.
“By Tuesday evening, we will finalise the 17 seats. There are issues on 6-7 seats in Vidarbha and that too will be resolved. A final decision on all MVA seats will be made by tomorrow,” said Maharashtra LoP Vijay Wadettiwar.