Congress leader Rahul Gandhi called Shiv Sena(UBT)'s Uddhav Thackeray to discuss the impasse over eight seats in Maharashtra for the Lok Sabha elections. The seat-sharing negotiations in INDIA bloc has become an issue in several states so far.
Reportedly, Gandhi who is currently heading the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra dialed up Thackeray and spoke for an hour regarding the seat sharing negotiations.
According to NDTV report, the Congress aims to compete for three out of the six Lok Sabha seats in Mumbai, namely Mumbai South Central, Mumbai North Central, and Mumbai North West. Reportedly, Uddhav Thackeray is seeking to contest 18 Lok Sabha seats in the state, including four in Mumbai - Mumbai South, Mumbai North West, Mumbai North East, and Mumbai South Central.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance, comprising Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena, Sharad Pawar's NCP, and the Congress faced with uncharted territory in seat negotiations because of the alliance being formed after the 2019 Lok Sabha election, despite ideological differences.
While an agreement has been reached on nearly 40 seats, negotiators are at crossroads over eight seats. In the 2019 polls, the undivided Shiv Sena contested 22 out of 48 seats and won 18, including three in Mumbai.
Following the failure to agree on power-sharing terms after the Maharashtra state polls, Uddhav Thackeray's party ended its 25-year alliance with the BJP.
The subsequent collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government occurred after the Shiv Sena split, leading to Eknath Shinde's faction forming a new government with the BJP.
Earlier this year, Sharad Pawar's NCP also experienced a rupture, with his nephew Ajit Pawar joining the Eknath Shinde-BJP coalition government.
The Congress is concerned about a potential mass departure following the switch of two prominent leaders in Maharashtra, former chief minister Ashok Chavan and Milind Deora, to the BJP which made the seat negotiations for the opposition allies in Maharashtra more complex.
It is reported that Uddhav Thackeray's party, in light of the Congress defections, is seeking a larger share of Mumbai seats.
Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar, Rahul Gandhi, and Mallikarjun Kharge are trying to find a solution, understanding that each party is fighting for its survival.
The Congress has recently finalized challenging agreements on seat sharing with Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party.
The party is also intensifying its efforts to reach an agreement with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has been unwilling to give up more than five of her state's 42 seats.
