Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Friday said he will finalize seat sharing for Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance in Maharashtra during a meeting with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
According to reports, the Opposition alliance has agreed on candidates for at least 200 out of 288 seats for the Maharashtra Assembly polls. However, the INDIA bloc partners are yet to find a consensus on a number of ‘coveted’ seats.
“Although there is no major difference of opinion between the NCP and the Shiv Sena, not even in the Congress, there are still some seats which all the three allies want to claim. Nana Patole, the Congress president in Maharashtra is an ally, and the seat sharing deadlock will be resolved soon,” Raut told reporters outside party office.
He also took a dig at the “incompetency” of certain Opposition leaders who have failed to speed up the seat-sharing talks.
“They have to send the list to Delhi again and again. Now that time has passed. We want this decision to be taken as soon as possible. Most of the leaders of Maharashtra are not capable of taking decisions,” Raut added.
On Thursday, the three Maha Vikas Aghadi allies – the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP-SP) — arrived at a consensus on 200 assembly seats, out of the total 288 seats in Maharashtra.
The Congress is looking to contest 110-120 seats, while the Shiv Sena (UBT) wants 90-100 and THE NCP (SP) is eyeing around 80 seats.
Raut also took a jibe at the BJP, saying, “People like me have gone to jail and come back, we know who the targets are and how and what the BJP will do.
“These are the Bishnoi gang of the BJP, although they do not have any weapons in their hands, they have weapons like CBI, ED and using those weapons they are targeting us and despite facing all this, we are standing in front of them,” ANI quoted the Shiv Sena leader as saying.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) too in the state has shortlisted at least three to five names which were finalized earlier this week.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi, comprising the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar faction) is fighting against the ruling Shinde led Shiv Sena, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and NCP’s Mahayuti alliance.