After demanding seat-sharing talks in MVA, SP takes lead in declaring 5 candidates in Maharashtra

Speaking to the media in Dhulia, Akhilesh said, “This announcement (of candidates) has been made because they are doing good work here. At least the strength of our party can be seen… Ever since the election dates have been announced, our party is on the ground. We do not want any delay this time.”

He said the SP has demanded 12 seats in Maharashtra. “We have our two MLAs here… We are those people who get satisfied with lesser seats as well… Yesterday we were in Malegaon… We have declared seats where the party is strong,” said Akhilesh.

The other seats the SP is eyeing as part of the MVA are Raver and Amravati, where the Congress has sitting MLAs, Byculla, Versova, Aurangabad East, Anushakti Nagar and Karanja.

In the 2019 Assembly polls, the SP had contested on seven seats and won two.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Azmi, who is the state SP chief, said the announcement of his and Rais Shaikh’s name was certain. About the other three candidates, he said, “In a survey it has been found that the SP candidate is best in Bhiwandi West seat. The other two seats (Malegaon Central and Dhule City) were won by AIMIM (in 2019) because of Muslim votes. (Here) SP influence among minorities is more than that of AIMIM. Also there are north Indian voters who can support SP because of Akhilesh Yadav. If SP contests on these seats in alliance with the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP), that will develop a strong position for us there,” Azmi said.

He said he had discussed the names of the SP candidates on the five seats with Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (SP) and they “did not object to any of them”.Azmi also said the SP should get a few more seats in MVA.

THe SP leader had earlier this week said that the Congress should take the SP into confidence before releasing its list of candidates and urged that a decision on seat-sharing be taken at the earliest. On Wednesday, he posted on X that it would be wrong for any of the MVA parties to release the list “without talking to the SP”.

There was no immediate reaction from any of the MVA constituents on the SP’s announcement of candidates in Maharashtra.

Last week, a day after the Congress lost the Haryana Assembly elections, the SP had named candidates for six of the 10 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh where bypolls are scheduled next month. Sources said the Congress, which was demanding five seats from the SP, was not consulted before the announcement of the SP candidates.