New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday expressed confidence that the Maha Vikas Aghadi would remain intact within the INDIA alliance and work out a seat-sharing formula for the coming Lok Sabha polls despite differences.
“The perceptions related to politics differ within the alliance and its is very natural when three parties are part of a group. But the Maha Vikas Aghadi has been together since 2019 and any differences over the Lok Sabha seat-sharing would be resolved amicably as we are one on defeating the BJP,” AICC secretary in charge of Maharashtra Ashish Dua told ETV Bharat.
The Congress leader’s comments came on a day the Congress national alliance panel would meet representatives from the Shiv Sena UBT and Nationalist Congress Party in the national capital to discuss who will get how many of the total 48 parliamentary seats in Maharashtra. According to party insiders, the Congress is expected to do some hard bargaining citing the change of political equations between the 2019 and the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
In 2019, the Congress and NCP fought the national elections together. As part of a pact, the Congress contested 25 seats but could win only one seat while the NCP contested 19 seats but could win only 4 seats. The NCP had left a few seats from its quota for smaller parties like the Kshetkari Sangathan and others. Shiv Sena was then an ally of the BJP. As per a pact, the BJP had contested 25 seats and won 23 seats while the Sena had contested 23 seats and won 18 seats.
The BJP and Sena had contested the assembly elections that were held soon after the national polls together but later serious differences over the chief ministerial post cropped up between the two parties. As a result, the Sena decided to break its alliance with BJP and joined hands with the NCP and the Congress to form the government. Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray became the chief minister of the new alliance which was named the Maha Vikas Aghadi.
A few years later, the MVA government was toppled by the BJP which engineered a split in the Sena and supported Sena rebel Eknath Shinde who became the new chief minister. Later, the Election Commission allowed the Shinde faction to retain the original symbol of the party and allotted a new symbol to the Uddhav Thackeray faction which is known as Shiv Sena UBT.
A year later in 2023, the BJP caused a split in the NCP also and supported NCP rebel Ajit Pawar who was made a deputy chief minister along with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis. “There have been suggestions that each MVA partner should get one third seats but that is not practical. Today, Maharashtra is a multi-party state and the Congress is in the strongest position of all. Hence, it should get the largest share of seats,” said Dua.
According to Congress insiders, the Sena UBT is also asking for 23 seats that the undivided party had contested in 2019 but the fact is that after the split, 13 out of the 18 MPs of the regional party had gone with the rebel Shinde group, weakening the Uddhav faction. Similarly, the NCP too has been weakened in the state, said Congress insiders.
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