2024 polls: MVA forms 9-member panel to decide on seat-sharing

The committee has former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, Basavaraj Patil and Naseem Khan from the Congress, MPs Sanjay Raut, Vinayak Raut and Anil Desai from the Shiv Sena UBT, and Jayant Patil, Jitendra Awhad and Anil Deshmukh from the Sharad Pawar led NCP.

During the meeting of Opposition INDIA bloc in Mumbai in August, a decision was taken to expedite the state wise seat-sharing between the alliance partners for the Lok Sabha polls and several committees were formed at the national level for coordination and campaigning. It was decided that the decision on seat-sharing would be taken at the state level by the alliance partners of the particular state.

“The committee will decide on seat allocation to the parties considering which party has its sitting MP of the constituency and which party has a higher chance of winning that constituency. We are trying to complete the seat allocation as soon as possible so that we will get time to prepare for the elections,” an MVA leader said.

According to political observers with the NCP, the Congress and Sena UBT would be contesting the polls together for the first time after formation of alliance in 2019. There is a possibility of friction between the three parties during seat-sharing since the Sena UBT has always contested Lok Sabha elections against the candidates from the Congress and the NCP.

In Mumbai, the Sena UBT is hoping to contest elections from four seats out of the total six Lok Sabha constituencies.

There are 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Shiv Sena had contested in an alliance with the BJP and the alliance won 41 seats. While the BJP won 22 seats out of 25, the Shiv Sena, then undivided, contested on 23 seats and won 18 seats.

The NCP bagged four seats, while the Congress, VBA-ally AIMIM candidates and an independent won one seat each.