The Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra have been struggling to agree on who gets which seats for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. While the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has sorted out its seat-sharing plan, the tripartite alliance, made up of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), is stuck in a deadlock over key constituencies – mainly Nashik, Satara, Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg and Thane.
What is happening in Nashik?
The Nashik constituency has been a sore point for all the Shiv Sena and NCP. Currently, the seat has been held by Hemant Godse of the Shiv Sena. However, the NCP has been eyeing the seat and reportedly wants to push their senior leader Chhagan Bhujbal to contest from the constituency.
Shinde has been stubborn over the Nashik seat citing Godse's loyalty to the party and his popularity in the constituency. On the other hand, Bhujbal has maintained he will contest from the seat only when all the Mahayuti agrees over the seat.
Row over Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg
While the Shinde sena has locked horns with the NCP over the Nashik seat, the party has been having a tussle with the BJP's Narayan Rane over the Ratnagir-Sindhudurg constituency. Rane's son Nilesh was defeated by undivided Shiv Sena's Vinayak Raut in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
For the upcoming Lok Sabha election, the Shiv Sena is willing to field industries minister Uday Samant's brother Karan. However, Rane has been firm on wanting the seat for his party.
The Thane turmoil
The Thane constituency, Shinde's hometown and his electoral bastion, has also emerged as the problematic spot in the Mahayuti's seat-sharing discussions. The chief minister has considerable support in Thane. However, he had amassed that support when he was part of the undivided Shiv Sena.
Now, the BJP staked claim to the seat. It has been reported that since Deputy Chief Minister announced Shinde's son Shrikant will run from the Kalyan constituency, the BJP will not give up its claim on the Thane seat.
Even though the BJP wants Thane, Sena member Pratap Sarnaik is still the top choice, making things complicated for Mahayuti.
Squabble over Satara
And then there's the Satara seat, where the Mahayuti has been unable to reach a consensus. In March, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Udayanraje Bhosale claimed that the party nominated him to contest election from the Satara constituency. However, the alliance has not made it official.
According to reports, the NCP is likely to get the Satara seat; and because of this Bhosale doesn't want to run under the NCP banner. This means they have to rethink who gets what seat, dragging out the negotiations even more.
Even though Deputy Chief Ministers Fadnavis and Pawar promised to reach a resolution soon, the alliance does not seem to come to a consensus soon.
