NEW DELHI: The discussion pertaining to seat-sharing among Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) for Maharashtra assembly elections with the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) is at the final stage.
The Left party is expected to make a candidature announcement in a couple of days. The CPM had conveyed to the alliance partners that it wishes to contest 12 seats.
Senior CPM leaders said that the party’s state unit held talks on seat-sharing with alliance members mainly with Nationalist Congress Party – Sharadchandra Pawar (NCP–SP) on Wednesday evening.
According to the leaders, if talks fail with alliance partners --Congress, Uddhav Thackeray-headed Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP-SP—the party may go ahead on its own and nominate candidates for at least five seats in the district where the CPM has been struggling for rights of the people including tribal and farmers.
The three parties are also part of Maha Vikas Aghadi; a state-level political coalition formed after the 2019 legislative assembly elections in the state.
“We have given a list of 12 seats. The party’s priority will be five seats having tribal populations including Dahanu, where the Left had struggled for the rights of the tribal for years. The other seats are where we have been contesting in the past,” said CPM leaders.
Vinod Nikole CPM won Dahanu seat in 2019.
The seats being sought by the Left party are Igatpuri, Kinwat, Vikramgad, Shahpur, Kalwan, Dindori, Nashik West, Majalgaon, Pathari, Solapur City Central, Akole and Dahanu.
The elections in Maharashtra are scheduled on November 20 and counting of votes will take place on November 23.
The party has already announced that it would contest the upcoming Jharkhand Assembly elections independently. It has named candidates for nine constituencies; Tamar, Baharagora, Sisai, Chatra, Jamtara, Pakur, Maheshpur, Jama and Mandar.
The elections in the state will happen in two phases; November 13 and November 20. The results will be announced on November 23. There are a total of 81 seats in the Jharkhand assembly.