Political landscape in Maharashtra is heating up as the assembly elections approach, with seat-sharing discussions gaining momentum within both the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and Mahayuti alliances. On one side, the Thackeray faction has finalized its candidate for the Bandra East constituency. Varun Sardesai will contest against Zeeshan Siddiqui, a Congress candidate. This announcement was made by Anil Parab, a key leader of the Thackeray faction, during a rally.
The Thackeray faction held a gathering of local leaders in Mumbai, where Anil Parab revealed the decision. He shared that, after discussions with Uddhav Thackeray, the decision to nominate Varun Sardesai for Bandra East was finalized. This sets up a contest between Sardesai and Zeeshan Siddiqui, as confirmed by the Thackeray faction. In the meantime, with the Election Commission officially announcing the Maharashtra assembly elections a few days ago, meetings for seat-sharing between the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and Mahayuti have intensified. Within the MVA, consensus has been reached on 216 seats so far. Marathon meetings are ongoing to resolve the remaining contentious seats, involving leaders such as Sanjay Raut, Nana Patole, Vijay Wadettiwar, Jitendra Awhad, Rajesh Tope, and Satej Patil. A meeting held today at Mumbai's Sofitel Hotel revealed that consensus had been reached on 33 out of 36 seats in Mumbai.
Agreements have been made to allocate 15 seats to Congress, 18 to Thackeray's Sena, 2 to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and 1 to the Samajwadi Party. However, disputes remain over the Kurla, Byculla, and Anushakti Nagar constituencies. Vijay Wadettiwar, Leader of the Opposition, mentioned that the final seat-sharing agreement could be announced by tonight or tomorrow.
The Congress party is expected to release its first list of candidates on October 20. So far, candidates for 84 seats have been finalized, and the party’s Central Election Committee will meet on the same day to finalize the list, which will then be made public.