Mumbai, March 6 (IANS): As the countdown for the Lok Sabha elections gets underway, Maharashtra is witnessing a massive and desperate tug-of-war among parties and prospective candidates for their favourite or winnable seats of the 48 constituencies in the state.
All the major parties – ruling allies Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party-Nationalist Congress Party plus their other partners, and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi’s Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (SP)-Shiv Sena (UBT), plus their other partners – besides other players, are engaged in a keen tussle to bag the highest number of seats to contest.
Both sides indicate that the chunk of the seat-sharing has been achieved amicably, but there are certain key constituencies and candidates on which decisions are yet to be taken, both at individual party levels and as alliances.
Among the contentious seats are three in Mumbai, plus one each in Thane, Pune, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Satara, Nagpur, which could offer ‘high-profile’ contests, for instance, in Baramati (Pune).
In at least one constituency, a prominent candidate is available, but there's no unanimity on which party ticket-symbol that person will contest, though the prospective nominee appears unperturbed with the goings-on and manages a knowing grin always.
On the ruling side, the BJP's partners Shiv Sena-NCP are said to be making big demands in terms of numbers, but they are unlikely to be obliged, as per current indications.
The Opposition side is also plagued by a similar scenario with both Congress-Shiv Sena-(UBT) claiming a large chunk of the seats, though the NCP (SP) has not committed itself to any figure.
Since Monday night, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has been camping in Maharashtra - and today in Mumbai - to work out an amicable solution to the seat-sharing problem, especially pertaining to a few key constituencies, while throwing in a Youth Convention in Jalgaon and a rally in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar on Tuesday evening.
The MVA's top leaders like Sharad Pawar, ex-CM Uddhav Thackeray, Nana Patole and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi President Prakash Ambedkar are meeting this afternoon to hammer out their differences and finalise the respective lists of candidates and constituencies, with some surprises likely to be thrown up.
Simultaneously, for national parties like BJP and Congress, even their central leadership based in New Delhi are taking a keen interest in the state-level seat-sharing formula, and conducting their own meetings for the purpose.
Sources in most parties exude confidence that all major-minor issues are likely to be sorted out by the weekend and their candidates shall be ready to venture for victory in the political battlefield for Lok Sabha-2024.