Maharashtra senior Congress leader Naseem Khan said that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies will form a committee to discuss the seat-sharing formula for the next year's Lok Sabha polls.
MVA comprises the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress. The tripartite alliance that was formed after the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly election results ruled the state from November that year to June 2022, when its government collapsed following a rebellion against the Shiv Sena leadership by Eknath Shinde and 39 MLAs of the party.
A committee of leaders from all three alliance partners will be formed to take a review of all the 48 Lok Sabha constituencies and recommend a formula which will be finalised by the leadership of the three parties, said Khan.
The seat-sharing will be done on electoral merits and there is no criterion that the constituency with a sitting MP belonging to one of the allies will remain with the party, he said. Electoral merit will be the only criterion, he added.
Talking about it, Khan said the 18 seats won by the Shiv Sena in 2019 were in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and it was not a criterion for seat-sharing in the MVA. This has been decided at the MVA meeting on May 15 convened by (NCP chief) Sharad Pawar where Uddhav Thackeray was also present, Khan said.