Maharashtra Elections 2024: The Congress-Shiv Sena stalemate over 15 seats and how MVA is likely to break it today

The stalemate over seat-sharing in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance is expected to end today. The Congress and the Shiv Sena (UBT) are likely to agree on the number of seats to contest in the November 20 Maharashtra assembly elections.

At the heart of the dispute between the two MVA partners are at least 15 seats in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly. Both parties—the Congress and the Shiv Sena (UBT)—have reportedly arrived at an amicable compromise formula for contesting these seats.

Three of these assembly seats are in Mumbai, and 12 are in eastern Vidarbha. Before the solution, both parties claimed these seats.

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

An amicable solution

Out of these 15 seats, the Congress may agree to contest 10 seats, most of them Vidarbha region, while the Shiv Sena (UBT) may agree to field candidates on remaining 5 seats, reports suggested on Tuesday.

The three disputed seats in Mumbai are Byculla, Bandra East, and Versova. In Vidarbha, the seats that have become a bone of contention between the MVA partners are Ramtek, Gondia, South Nagpur, Bhandara, and Gadchiroli, to name a few.

Overall, NCP (SP) is likely to contest 80 seats, while Shiv Sena (UBT) will contest about 90 seats. The remaining 110 seats will go to the Congress party, as per a likely seat-sharing formula.

Sharad Pawar's intervention

According to reports, the two alliance partners were back at the discussion table soon after Sharad Pawar's intervention.

The Congress convened the meeting of its Central Election Committee (CEC) on Monday. Soon after the meeting, the Congress party released its first list of 21 candidates for the upcoming Jharkhand Assembly polls.

Jharkhand will vote in two phases – November 13 and 20—and Maharashtra in a single phase on November 20. The votes of both these elections will be counted on November 23.

The 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 in the November 20 polls.