With barely one day left for filing of nominations, the ruling Mahayuti as well as the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) appears to have been facing a tough situation as candidates from allies have filed nomination against their alliance members- making the seat sharing exercise a bit tricky issue.
On Monday, the NCP(SP), a constituent of the MVA, announced its fourth list making the total number of candidates to 265 for 262 seats by the alliance partners. The NCP(SP), Congress and Shiv Sena UBT have fielded their candidates against each other in three assembly constituencies – Digras, Bhoom-Paranda and Solapur South.
The total number of candidates announced by the Congress are 99, SS-UBT 84 and NCP SP 82. So far 26 candidates are yet to be announced by them.
Meanwhile, NCP(SP) chief Sharad Pawar claimed that the MVA had reached a consensus over 90% to 95% of the total 288 seats in the state. The MVA’s fight was against those who engineered splits in rival political parties and those who compromised with their ideology, he said.
In another development, Shiv Sena(UBT)’s Sanjay Raut has warned the Congress over fielding candidate from the Solapur South where the Sena has already announced a nominee. “Such actions could provoke a similar response from their side and create problems for the MVA,” he said.
While the Sena has fielded Amar Patil, the Congress has announced the name of Dilip Mane from the Solapur South. “I consider it a typing mistake by the Congress. Such a mistake could happen from our side as well,” Raut said. He also referred to another problem at Miraj from where the Congress local unit is eager to put up a candidate.
“We fight for more seats in Mumbai,” Raut said.
Meanwhile, Congress state chief Nana Patole has said that the party high command had decided to contest the Solapur South.
On the other side, the Mahayuti constituents are also struggling over the high aspirations. On Monday, the BJP decided to field Umesh Yawalkar from Morshi (Amravati), the constituency currently represented by Devendra Bhuyar who is supporting the government as an ally of DyCM Ajit Pawar.
The ruling side is also worried over the rebellion at few places such as Chandgad (Kolhapur) from where Shivaji Patil has decided to contest against NCP MLA Rajesh Patil.
The Mahayuti has so far announced 260 candidates – 146 by the BJP, 65 by Shiv Sena and 49 by NCP. A decision over 28 seats is pending. The BJP has announced four seats for their allies – Badnera (Dist Amravati) for Yuva Swabhiman Party, Gangakhed (Dist Parbhani) for Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, Kalina for RPI led by Ramdas Athawale and Shahuwadi for Jana Surajya Shakti Paksha.
