MVA seals poll pact in Maharashtra; Sena (UBT) gets 21 LS seats, Cong 17, NCP (SP) 10

MUMBAI: The Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on Tuesday announced its seat-sharing formula for the Lok Sabha polls with the Shiv Sena (UBT) getting the major chunk of 21 seats, while the Congress will contest 17 and the NCP (SP) 10 seats. Maharashtra has 48 Lok Sabha seats.

The Congress displaying “large-heartedness’’ gave up its claim on the contentious Sangli and Bhiwandi seats, which will now be contested by the Sena (UBT) and the NCP (SP), respectively. Congress said the bigger objective is to defeat the BJP.

NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar said there are no differences among the allies over any seat and the distribution arrangement for the 48 parliamentary seats in the state has been arrived at unanimously.

While Shiv Sena (UBT) head Uddhav Thackeray said the larger goal of the alliance was to defeat the BJP, state Congress president Nana Patole said it has decided to be “large-hearted” to achieve this objective.

Pawar, Thackeray and Patole announced the poll pact after weeks of hectic negotiations.

Addressing a press conference at ‘Shivalaya’, the Shiv Sena (UBT) office in south Mumbai, former state chief minister Thackeray said the seat-sharing deal has been reached and that in an alliance, winning is important and defeating the BJP is the goal.

“When victory against the BJP is the larger goal, we have to set aside certain differences,” he said when asked about the Shiv Sena (UBT) refusing to give Sangli seat to the Congress.

Thackeray said there was a strange coincidence of “surya grahan” (solar eclipse), “amavasya” (new moon) and the BJP rally on the same day (Monday).

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech yesterday was not that of a prime minister. When we respond, please don’t take it as an insult of the prime minister. Our criticism will be about a leader of a corrupt party,” Thackeray said to a query on Modi referring to his party as “fake Shiv Sena”.

The BJP is a “party of extortionists” and this was seen after the electoral bonds “scam” was exposed, Thackeray claimed.

The Congress workers will fight the BJP and ensure the victory of the MVA candidates in Sangli and Bhiwandi, he said.

Thackeray said he has announced all the 21 candidates for the seats to be contested by his party and the Congress and NCP (SP) will do so in a day or two.

Patole said the BJP links the Congress’ “social justice” manifesto to the pro-Partition Muslim League, which shows how low the ruling party can stoop to.

As part of the deal, the Shiv Sena (UBT) has got Jalgaon, Parbhani, Nashik, Palghar, Kalyan, Thane, Raigad, Maval, Osmanabad, Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Buldhana, Hathkanangkale, Aurangabad, Shirdi, Sangli, Hingoli, Yavatmal-Washim, Mumbai South, Mumbai South Central, Mumbai North West and Mumbai North East seats.

The Congress will contest Nandurbar, Dhule, Akola, Amravati, Nagpur, Bhandara-Gondia, Gadchiroli-Chimur, Chandrapur, Nanded, Jalna, Mumbai North Central, Mumbai North, Pune, Latur, Solapur, Kolhapur and Ramtek seats.

The NCP(SP) will contest Baramati, Shirur, Satara, Bhiwandi, Dindori, Madha, Raver, Wardhan, Ahmednagar South and Beed seats.

The Lok Sabha polls will be held in the state in five phases from April 19 to May 20.