Maha Vikas Aghadi finalises seat-sharing for Maharashtra polls: Sources

The Opposition alliance in Maharashtra, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), has reached an agreement over seat-sharing for the upcoming state Assembly elections, sources told India Today TV.
According to the proposed agreement, the Congress is likely to contest 105 to 110 seats, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) will be allotted 90 to 95 seats, and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is expected to field candidates in 75 to 80 constituencies, sources said.
The MVA alliance, formed after the 2019 state elections, is hoping to defeat the ruling Mahayuti alliance, comprising BJP, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, and the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP.
The opposition parties are looking to repeat their Lok Sabha polls performance, where they had an advantage over the Mahayuti alliance. The MVA won 30 Lok Sabha seats against its rival’s 17. The Congress won 13 out of the 17 seats it contested, and Shiv Sena-UBT had won 9 out of 21 seats it fought in.
Internal disagreements over seat distribution had initially cropped up between the member parties. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut and Congress’s Nana Patole had traded barbs regarding the allocation of seats, prompting urgent discussions among the leadership.
In a bid to resolve these differences, the MVA leaders held a nine-hour-long marathon meeting at the Trident Hotel in South Mumbai on Saturday. As per sources, both Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders then reached out to NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) chief Sharad Pawar to mediate and resolve the differences in the opposition alliance.
The election for the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly is scheduled to take place in a single phase on November 20, with the results to be declared on November 23.