Maha Vikas Aghadi yet to form consensus on 28 Maharashtra Assembly seats: Sources

The MVA, comprising the Congress, Sharad Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party and Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena, has also decided to release a list of the disputed seats to the heads of each party of the alliance to take a final decision on them. 

In Short

• Talks going on to finalise seat-sharing deal on 28 seats
• NCP-Sharad Pawar's first list expected to be out on October 20
• Samajwadi Party seeks 12 seats, including four in Mumbai

The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has formed a consensus on seat-sharing on 260 of 288 seats in the Maharashtra legislative Assembly, sources said.

The MVA, comprising the Congress, Sharad Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party and Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena, has also decided to release a list of the disputed seats to the heads of each party of the alliance to take a final decision on them.

Talks are going on to resolve the dispute over 28 seats, including three seats in Mumbai, sources added.

"Most of the seats, which are unresolved, belong to Vidarbha region where both Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) have made their claims. There are three major disputed seats in Mumbai, which include Versova, Byculla and Dharavi. The Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) have claimed Versova, Byculla and Ghatkopar (west)", the source said.

The sources claimed that the Congress would contest on 15 seats, the Shiv Sena (UBT) on 17 seats, the NCP on three seats including Anushakti Nagar and Ghatkopar (East) Assembly constituencies.

Senior MVA leaders held a meeting on Thursday in Mumbai over the seat-sharing formula. The first list of the Congress party is expected to be released on Sunday.

The meeting, which was attended by Shiv Sena (UBT) spokesperson Sanjay Raut, Maharashtra Congress leaders Nana Patole, Vijay Wadettiwar, Satej Patil, senior NCP leader Jitendra Awhad among others, concluded after nine hours.

After the meeting, Maharashtra Congress Chief Nana Patole said that they had a positive discussion over seat distribution. "A list of nearly 25 disputed seats will be sent to the high command of each constituent of the MVA. Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar and Mallikarjun Kharge will take a final call on these seats", he said.

Opposition leader Vijay Wadettiwar told reporters after the meeting that the first list of the party candidates will be released on October 20. So far, the screening has been completed on 84 seats. The party will be holding a meeting of the central election committee (CEC) on October 20 to decide the candidates. The candidates will be announced on the same day, Wadettiwar added.

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party state president and MLA Abu Azmi has demanded 12 seats, including four seats of Byculla, Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar, Versova and Anushakti Nagar in Mumbai, the source added.

"We don’t want to split the INDIA bloc’s votes like what happened in Haryana. As we had contested together, we had stopped the BJP from winning 400 seats to 240 seats in the Lok Sabha. We have to remain united to defeat the BJP in the state", Azmi said.

The Maharashtra SP chief also said that they are going to speak to the party president Akhilesh Yadav, who will be in Malegaon and Dhule Assembly constituencies in the state on Friday, to discuss the matter with party cadre.

Elections to the 288 seats of the Maharashtra Assembly will be held in a single phase on November 20, while the votes will be counted and results will be announced on November 23.