The NDA partners - BJP, Shiv Sena, and NCP - in Maharashtra have reportedly finalised their seat-sharing for the Lok Sabha elections. As per the deal, the BJP will fight on 31 seats, while Shiv Sena of Eknath Shinde will contest on 13 and Ajit Pawar-led NCP 4, NDTV reported on Wednesday, citing sources. The NCP will contest from Baramati, Raigarh, Shirur, and Parbhani.
Baramati is the stronghold of the Pawar family as the NCP has never lost this seat since 1996. NCP supremo Sharad Pawar represented this seat from 1996 to 2004 and then his daughter Supriya Sule held this seat since 2009. Sule, Ajit Pawar's cousin, is the sitting MP from Baramati. This will be the first big election in Baramati when two members of the Pawar family may take on each other. The speculation is that Ajit Pawar may field his wife Sunetra Pawar against Sule.
NDTV reported that Ajit Pawar has fielded NCP's Maharashtra President and sitting MP Sunil Tatkare to defend Raigarh against Anant Geete, who will likely be named to contest from this seat by Uddhav Thackeray's Sena. The NCP may field Pradeep Kand or Adhalrao Patil from Shirur.
In the last parliamentary elections, the BJP had contested the polls with undivided Shiv Sena headed by Uddhav Thackeray. BJP-Sena together had won 41 of 48 seats. The BJP bagged 23, while Sena won 21 seats. The Congress, on the other hand, won 1 seat, while 4 seats went to NCP, and 1 to AIMIM.