MVA allies form coordination panel to discuss seat-sharing in Maharashtra for LS polls

Mumbai: Allies in opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) have formed a nine-member coordination committee, consisting of three leaders from each constituent, to discuss seat-sharing in Maharashtra for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan, who is a member of the committee, on Thursday confirmed the formation of the panel by the MVA partners.

The Congress, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar group) are the constituents of the opposition bloc in Maharashtra, which has 48 Lok Sabha seats, the second highest after Uttar Pradesh (80).

Chavan said his party’s leadership in the state will first hold a meeting to decide its position in seat-sharing talks with other MVA partners.

‘We will then decide the formula of seat-sharing in talks with allies,’ he told reporters.

Besides Chavan, a former CM, senior leaders Naseem Khan and Basavraj Patil are the other Congress members in the panel.

Khan said all MVA allies have agreed that winnability should be the criteria for distribution of Lok Sabha constituencies. The Congress will hold a region-wise review of all the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state from October 7 to October 12, said Khan, a former Maharashtra minister.

Another Congress leader said the MVA constituents have to exercise utmost caution while selecting candidates to ensure votes of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Congress, who joined hands in 2019 in Maharashtra, are transferred to each other’s candidates. The NCP (undivided) is an old ally of

the Congress.