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Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024: Assembly elections are going to be held in Maharashtra later this year. For this reason, talks on seat sharing in the ruling coalition have not officially started. However, the tussle between the constituent parties regarding seats has already started. There are 288 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly. Looking at the demands of the constituent parties of the NDA, it does not seem easy to solve this math.
According to a report, BJP wants to contest on 150 seats. Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde wants 100 seats. While Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's party NCP wants 80 seats. If the minimum figures are added together, this number is 40 more than the total number of seats in the Assembly. This is because the time for negotiations between the constituent forces is about to begin.
It is also important for the BJP to keep its allies united in Maharashtra because the saffron group had a disappointing performance there in the Lok Sabha elections. It won only 17 out of 48 seats. The Maha Vikas Aghadi has won a spectacular victory on 30 seats. Experts say that disagreement over seat sharing for the elections played an important role in the poor performance of the NDA.
According to sources, Ajit Pawar, along with BJP ally Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, met Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Thursday and discussed seat sharing. He said that the junior Pawar is under pressure from his party leaders not to settle for less than 80-90 seats. They argue that he should contest all the 54 seats that the undivided NCP won in the 2019 assembly elections. The undivided NCP led by Sharad Pawar contested over 120 seats in alliance with the Congress in the 2019 elections.
Insiders in the ruling coalition said the Ajit Pawar group knows it is in a difficult position. The Sharad Pawar faction won eight seats in the Lok Sabha elections. It won only one Lok Sabha seat. It lost the Baramati seat as well. Ajit Pawar has made it a prestige battle by fielding Supriya Sule, his wife Sunetra's cousin and Sharad Pawar's daughter.
There has been speculation since the Lok Sabha election results that several leaders of Ajit Pawar's party, after the split in July last year, are in touch with Sharad Pawar's group to return to the NCP. This is increasing the pressure on Ajit Pawar to decide whether the party can field enough candidates to quell dissent.
After the results of the Lok Sabha elections, in an article published in a weekly newspaper, BJP's Ajit Pawar has been criticized for contesting the elections in alliance with the NCP.
However, the alliance forces have dismissed any such discontent. The alliance performed well in the Legislative Council elections earlier this month. BJP leader and Union Minister Narayan Rane was seen creating a stir once again on Friday. When asked at a press conference how many seats the BJP would contest in the assembly elections, he joked, “I would like the BJP to field its candidates on all 288 seats.”