Mumbai, Mar 24 (IANS): After three days of waiting, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his two deputies Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, reached Delhi on Saturday to hold seat-sharing talks with Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The trio is hopeful that a seat-sharing agreement will be reached during the meeting with the Home Minister.

The MahaYuti partners BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP are quite desperate to seal the seat-sharing agreement as the first phase of the poll process has begun in five Lok Sabha seats in the Vidarbha region. Even before the announcement of a formal deal, the BJP has already announced candidates in 20 constituencies and the Congress in 7 seats. The Shinde faction has not yet formally announced any candidate. However, the nomination of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s son Shrikant Shinde has been announced by BJP Minister Ravindra Chavan ifor the Kalyan constituency in Thane district.

The BJP, which has repeatedly announced that the MahaYuti will win 45 plus seats in the state, is expected to grab the lion’s share in the seat-sharing arrangement. The saffron party is keen to get about 28 to 34 seats. On the other hand, the Shinde faction is adamant on getting 18 seats or at least 13 seats of the sitting MPs. The Ajit Pawar-led faction was earlier keen to get 13 seats but now hopes for 9 seats. The three parties have staked claims on at least 10 of the same seats.

In the case of Satara, both the NCP and the BJP are interested in it. However, former MP and Chhatrapati Shivaji’s descendant Udayanraje Bhosale, who is a Rajya Sabha MP, has expressed his desire to contest from Satara which he had represented earlier. At the same time, Mathai worker leader and BJP leader Narendra Patil has also shown a desire to fight from Satara.

The seat-sharing talks were lingering with the possible entry of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena in the MahaYuti as it has staked claim to at least 3 seats. On the other hand, the Republican Party of India (Athavale) is quite keen to get the Shirdi reserved constituency.

The CM’s son Shrikant Shinde, who is optimistic about winning with a higher margin from the Kalyan seat, said the seat-sharing arrangement will be sealed in the next two days.

"Even before the formal announcement of the seat-sharing agreement, the cadres belonging to MahaYuti partners have already started the poll-related work in all 48 constituencies," he added.