National Congress Party (NCP) chief Ajit Pawar announced on Saturday that the first round of discussions on seat-sharing among the Mahayuti alliance has been completed in preparation for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections 2024. Pawar stated that the alliance would meet again to finalise the allocation of 288 seats.
"We had our first round of discussions on seat sharing. We will sit again for the second time and decide who gets which seat, out of the 288 seats. We will discuss and decide on that. Elective merit will be the criteria for seat sharing," Ajit Pawar said as ANI quoted.
The Maharashtra legislative assembly elections will be contested in 288 constituencies, with the Election Commission of India yet to announce the election dates.
The upcoming elections will see a contest between the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition, which includes the UBT Shiv Sena, NCP (Sharad Pawar faction), and Congress, and the Maha Yuti Alliance, comprising the BJP, Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction), and NCP (Ajit Pawar faction).
The recent Lok Sabha elections provided a boost to the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance, which secured a total of 30 seats, with Shiv Sena (UBT) winning nine, Congress 13, and NCP-SP eight. In contrast, the Maha Yuti Alliance won only 17 seats, with BJP securing nine, Shiv Sena seven, and NCP one.