In the midst of intense seat negotiations with allies from the INDIA bloc leading up to the national election, Rahul Gandhi reached out to Uddhav Thackeray yesterday to address the impasse surrounding eight of Maharashtra's 48 seats. According to a report of NDTV, Rahul Gandhi, who is in the middle of a Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, reportedly spoke to the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader for an hour.
According to sources, the Congress is seeking to contest three out of Mumbai's six Lok Sabha seats: Mumbai South Central, Mumbai North Central, and Mumbai North West. Meanwhile, Uddhav Thackeray reportedly aims to secure 18 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, including four in Mumbai: Mumbai South, Mumbai North West, Mumbai North East, and Mumbai South Central, NDTV reported.
For the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance comprising Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena, Sharad Pawar's NCP, and the Congress, the seat negotiations pose unfamiliar challenges as the parties formed this ideologically diverse alliance after the 2019 Lok Sabha election. While they have reached agreements on nearly 40 seats, negotiators are currently deadlocked on eight seats
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the unified Shiv Sena contested 22 out of 48 seats and emerged victorious in 18, with three wins in Mumbai alone. However, shortly after the Maharashtra state polls, Uddhav Thackeray's party terminated its 25-year alliance with the BJP. This decision came about due to their inability to come to terms on power-sharing arrangements.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi government faced dissolution after the Shiv Sena parted ways, leading to Eknath Shinde's faction aligning with the BJP to establish a new government.
More recently, the NCP experienced a parallel rupture earlier this year when Ajit Pawar, Sharad Pawar's nephew, joined the coalition government led by Eknath Shinde and the BJP.