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The ruling alliance’s nine seats have not yet been decided upon on the eve of the deadline for nomination filing.
The assembly election in Maharashtra this year has gone off script, with no clarity on which party is contesting how many seats in the ruling alliance or the opposition front. On the eve of the last day of filing of nominations, decision on nine seats in the ruling alliance is yet to be announced.
The image on the other side is even more blurred. The Maha Vikas Aghadi, which made headlines for weeks over its tussle over seat sharing, is yet to provide a final frame. The alliance has already announced a different number of seats and moved past the 85-85-95 seat sharing.
Even so, there has been no announcement on 16 seats, while its other allies, including Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party, wait in the wings.
The Yuva Swabhiman Party, Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, Republican Party of India (Athavale), and Jan Surajya Shakti Paksha are the four smaller allies that will be contesting for the 146 seats in the ruling alliance, after the BJP first declared that it would run for 150 seats.
However, two of its members—Mumbadevi party spokesperson Shaina NC and Sangamner candidate Amol Khatal—have appeared on the Shiv Sena of Eknath Shinde’s list.
That leaves 138 seats to the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party’s Ajit Pawar faction.
After announcing 65 candidates earlier, the Shinde faction announced 15 more tonight, including Shaina NC, bringing its total to 80. Similar to the BJP, the Sena has allocated two seats from its share to smaller parties: Rajashri Shahuprakash Aghadi and the Jan Suraj Party.
Of the 58 seats presumably left to Ajit Pawar, 49 candidates have been announced.
With 103 candidates already announced by the Congress, 87 by Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena faction, and 82 by Sharad Pawar’s NCP, the MVA now has 272 of the state’s 288 seats up for grabs.
The indecision and delay only serve to highlight how important Maharashtra is and how this election is anticipated to be a referendum on the state’s political turmoil over the past few years.
Only Uttar Pradesh, which has 80 lower house seats and is regarded as the entry point to Delhi, is more significant than Maharashtra, which has 48 members in the Lok Sabha.
The Shiv Sena’s split, the fall of the MVA government, and the transfer of power to the BJP and the rebel Sena faction have all caused significant political unrest in the state over the past two years. After that, Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress party split, and the rebel group led by Ajit Pawar joined the ruling coalition.
Part of the repercussion has been felt by the BJP and its allies in the Lok Sabha election earlier this year.
The Opposition Of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state, 30 were won by Maha Vikas Aghadi, while 17 were won by the ruling alliance. An Independent took one seat. Nine Shiv Sena seats were won by the Uddhav Thackeray faction, more than the seven that Mr. Shinde’s faction secured.
In contrast to Ajit Pawar’s party, the Nationalist Congress Party (led by Sharadchandra Pawar) won eight seats. The Congress emerged victorious, increasing from one seat to thirteen, while the BJP lost nine of its twenty-three seats.