Amid ongoing deadlock over seat-sharing among Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) parties in poll-bound Maharashtra, Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray on Friday warned that disputes, especially with the Congress, should not be allowed to escalate to a breaking point.
Speaking at a press conference, Thackeray mentioned he had not received any reports from his party's seat-sharing negotiators indicating a significant hurdle in finalising a deal for the November 20 elections to the 288-member assembly.
Thackeray emphasised that discussions on seat-sharing between the opposition alliance partners—Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), and NCP (SP)—were in the final stages, and a deal might be reached by Saturday or within 2 to 3 days. "Haggling among allies must not be allowed to reach a breaking point," the former CM cautioned, as negotiations over seat allocation continued, news agency PTI reported.
Thackeray also highlighted that the political landscape in Maharashtra has moved, with people now favouring the opposition MVA to take power in the upcoming assembly polls. Although the Election Commission announced the election schedule four days ago, neither the opposition MVA nor the ruling Mahayuti (comprising BJP, Shiv Sena, and NCP) has finalised their seat-sharing arrangements, reflecting intense negotiations among the parties.
"The pending decision should be expedited. Very little time is left (for voting). Maharashtra Congress leaders are not capable of making decisions. They have to send the list to Delhi (central leadership) frequently and then discussions happen. The decision (on constituency allocation) will have to be taken at the earliest," Raut emphasised.
Raut further informed that the three MVA partners have agreed to a consensus on 200 of the 288 assembly seats.
The Rajya Sabha MP disclosed that he spoke to Congress general secretaries K C Venugopal and Mukul Wasnik and the party's Maharashtra in-charge Ramesh Chennithala on Friday morning over seat-sharing. The Sena (UBT) leader said he would also speak to top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on the matter.
In a response to the remarks of Raut, MPCC president Nana Patole underscored that there was a stalemate in the MVA over 25 to 30 assembly seats, and maintained the party's state unit will stick to any decision of its high command.
Patole did not explain further, but the stalemate is expected to take place on several seats. It will particularly be in Mumbai and Vidarbha, where MVA parties are making claims while delaying a final pact.
The state Congress president announced that the seat-sharing talks of MVA concluded on Thursday night (October 17). "There are roughly 48 seats in the Shiv Sena (UBT) list and we (Congress) have given up our claim on 18 of them. There are 25 to 30 seats where there is a dispute. We have informed our party high command about it, and we will abide by whatever decision our leadership takes on this," Patole said.
"Will (Sena-UBT leader) Sanjay Raut and (NCP SP's Maharashtra chief) Jayant Patil take any final decision without consulting (their party chiefs) Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar, respectively?" the Congress questioned.
In response to rumors in certain media that the Sena (UBT) won't go to MVA's upcoming meetings on seat-sharing if Patole continues to attend, he stated that these allegations were "planted". He clarified that there was no real discussion about the negotiations.
