Mumbai, May 1 After days of bargaining, the ruling MahaYuti in Maharashtra comprising the BJP, Shiv Sena, and NCP has finally sealed the seat-sharing deal for the Lok Sabha elections.
As per the pact, of the 48 seats in the state, BJP has got the lion's share of 28 seats, followed by Shiv Sena (15), NCP (4), and the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (1).
It took some time for the three MahaYuti partners to arrive at an understanding, mainly due to the claims and counterclaims on several seats.
The MahaYuti has set an ambitious target of winning 45 of the total 48 seats in the state. It is riding on PM Modi’s guarantees and the work done by the state government.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has addressed nine rallies in the state so far, and is expected to address more during the next three phases of elections.
The 28 seats being contested by the BJP are -- Mumbai North, Mumbai North East, Mumbai North Central, Nagpur, Chandrapur, Bhandara-Gondiya, Gadchiroli-Chimur, Akola, Amaravati, Wardha, Nanded, Latur, Solapur, Madha, Satara, Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Nandurbar, Jalgaon, Raver, Jalna, Pune, Sangli, Ahmednagar, Beed, Dhule, Dindori, Palghar, and Bhiwandi.
The party will announce its candidate for Palghar on Thursday.
The Shiv Sena is contesting the following seats -- Mumbai South, Mumbai North West, Mumbai South Central, Thane, Nashik, Kalyan, Kolhapur, Hatkanangale, Hingoli, Yavatmal-Washim, Shirdi, Ramtek, Buldhana, Maval, and Nashik.
The NCP has got Baramati, Raigad, Dharashiv, and Shirur, leaving Parbhani to its ally Rashtriya Samaj Paksha.
The BJP has dropped sitting MPs Poonam Mahajan, Manoj Kotak, and Gopal Shetty from Mumbai North Central, Mumbai North East, and Mumbai North constituencies respectively, besides dropping Sanjay Dhotre from Akola, Unmesh Patil from Jalgaon, Pritam Munde from Beed, and Jaisidheshvar Swami from Solapur.
The party has fielded Union Minister Piyush Goyal from Mumbai North, Mihir Kotecha from Mumbai North East, Ujjwal Nikam from Mumbai North Central, Anup Dhotre from Akola, Smita Wagh from Jalgaon, and Pankaja Munde from Beed.
The party has also nominated state minister Sudhir Mungantiwar from Chandrapur, a seat it lost in 2019 to the Congress.
In the case of Shiv Sena, the party has dropped the sitting MPs from Hingoli, Ramtek, Yavatmal-Washim, and Mumbai North West.
The NCP, despite its earlier demand of 13 seats, had to settle for four seats this time.
NCP President Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra Pawar has been fielded against her sister-in-law and NCP (SP) nominee Supriya Sule from Baramati, Sunil Tatkare has been renominated from Raigad, former Shiv Sena leader and three-term MP Shivajirao Adhalrao has been nominated from Shirur, while Archana Patil, the wife of BJP MLA Rana Jagjit Singh Patil, has been given the ticket for the Dharashiv Lok Sabha constituency.
RSP founder and former minister Mahadev Jankar has been pitted against Shiv Sena (UBT) sitting MP Sanjay Jadhav from Parbhani.
In 2019, the BJP won 23 out of the 25 seats it fought, while its ally Shiv Sena (united) bagged 18 out of the 22 seats, winning 41 seats together. Four seats were won by the NCP (united), while one seat each was bagged by the Congress, MIM, and an Independent nominee.
(Sanjay Jog can be contacted at sanjay.j@ians.in)
--IANS
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