Ahead of the Maharashtra assembly elections, the ruling Mahayuti alliance — comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, and Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) — is nearing finalisation of its seat-sharing arrangement, News 18 reported on Thursday, citing sources.
The BJP is expected to contest the highest number of seats, followed by the Shiv Sena and NCP. "The BJP is likely to contest anywhere between 150 and 155 seats, the Sena 90-95 seats, and the NCP 40-45 seats," sources told News18.
The seat-sharing deal is likely be announced before the declaration of the poll dates by the Election Commission. According to the report, the distribution of a majority of seats has been completed, but a couple of additional rounds of discussion will take place for around 25 seats, that are yet to be decided.
Only 5-10% of seats are likely to see a change in sitting candidates, the report said.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar recently outlined a seat-sharing formula for the Mahayuti alliance. Speaking at the India Today Conclave Mumbai 2024, Pawar explained that each party would contest the seats they won in the 2019 assembly elections.
"The BJP had won 105 seats in 2019, so it will contest these seats," he said, adding that the BJP, Shiv Sena, and NCP together secured nearly 200 seats in the last polls, and they plan to retain those seats.
Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena had earlier requested 107 of the 288 seats for the assembly polls, submitting a detailed proposal to the BJP high command. Shinde is aiming for a direct contest with Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena and has sought the maximum number of seats in Mumbai, Thane, and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).
The BJP is also in favor of a head-to-head battle between Shinde's Shiv Sena and Uddhav's faction. There is a possibility the BJP may exchange a few seats with Shinde's Sena to facilitate this direct competition. Initially, the BJP had sought to contest 160 seats, but it may settle for 150 seats to accommodate the alliance's demands.
In July, Ajit Pawar met Home Minister Amit Shah and demanded 80–90 seats for the NCP. However, he may not get that many seats, considering the Lok Sabha elections in which the NCP performed very poorly. The NCP could win just 1 of 4 Lok Sabha seats it contested.