MUMBAI: The ruling MahaYuti in Maharashtra struggles to resolve differences in 30 “disputed” Assembly seats within the alliance partners. Union minister Amit Shah has called a meeting of chief minister Eknath Shinde and his deputies Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar.
The BJP has decided to contest between 150 and 160 seats. It is ready to give 70-80 seats to Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and 50-55 seats to Ajit Pawar-led NCP. However, Shinde has been demanding 80-100 seats with a promise to project him as the chief minister. The BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP (Ajit Pawar) have announced their first lists of 99, 64 38 candidates first list respectively. The alliance partners have decided that among the three, a party would retain a seat from where it has the current MLA. So there is no dispute over 210 seats while the remaining seats are being discussed and resolved. There are 30 seats where MahaYuti partners have conflicting claims.
On Thursday night, Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar along with NCP state chief Sunil Tatkare and senior party leader Praful Patel flew to Delhi to meet Shah in a bid to resolve the seats issue. However, the communication of this meeting was not extended to Shinde.
