Maharashtra Election 2024: Will MVA seat-sharing impasse break today? Pawar, Uddhav to attend crucial Mumbai meet

The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance is expected to announce a seat-sharing deal for Maharashtra on Tuesday, a day after Congress released its first list of candidates for Jharkhand Assembly Elections.

The Congress and its ally Shiv Sena (UBT) led by Uddhav Thackeray met on Monday indulging in hard barganing for the Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024.

A crucial meeting is scheduled today in Mumbai expected to be attended by senior leaders of the alliance, including Thackeray, AICC Maharashtra in-charge Ramesh Chennithala, and Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) chief Sharad Pawar.

Pawar plays mediator

The Shiv Sena and the Congress had turned to Pawar to resolve the impasse on Sunday. Earlier the two parties had held separate internal meetings amid differences over seat-sharing in the 288-member assembly. As per reports, the two alliance partners are back to the discussion table soon after Pawar's intervention.

The Congress convened the meeting of its Central Election Committee (CEC) at the AICC headquarters in Delhi to strategise for the upcoming Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly elections. Attendees included Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, and General Secretary KC Venugopal.

Soon after the meeting, the Congress party released its first list of 21 candidates for the upcoming Jharkhand Assembly polls on Monday night. Jharkhand is voting in two phases – November 13 and 20. Maharashtra is voting in single phase on November 20. Votes of both these elections will be counted on November 23.

The MVA seat-sharing impasse was reportedly due to Shiv Sena's issues with Congress' Maharashtra president Nana Patole who was pushing for 125 seats for the grand old party while the Sena (UBT) wanted 100 seats each for it and the Congress and 88 for the NCP (SP).

On Monday, however,  Nana Patole highlighted ongoing issues regarding seat-sharing among the MVA partners.

“We (Congress) have discussed 96 seats today. There are some seats in the discussion, but we did not talk about them. We will talk to Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday. Regarding the sharing problem on 30-40 seats, we will find a way for it,” he told reporters.

Maharashtra Assembly Election 2024 marks the first polls in the state after the Shiv Sena and NCP parties split in June 2022 and July 2023.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising the Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar faction) is fighting against the ruling Shinde led Shiv Sena, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and NCP's Mahayuti alliance.