The Congress held preliminary talks for seat-sharing in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections with the Shiv Sena (UBT) and Nationalist Congress Party for Maharashtra, and with the Samajwadi Party for Uttar Pradesh. The seat-sharing talks were held at the residence of Congress leader Mukul Wasnik, who is also the convener of the Seat Sharing Committee set up for the purpose by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge.
Former Rajasthan chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Salman Khurshid were also present during the deliberations.
The seat-sharing talks were held first for Maharashtra and then for Uttar Pradesh in the evening at Wasnik’s residence.
Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole and other leaders, including former chief minister Ashok Chavan and Balasaheb Thorat, were present during the deliberations, where NCP’s Jitendra Awhad and Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders Sanjay Raut and Vinayak Raut were also present.
NCP leader Awhad later said it was decided that the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi would also be part of the MVA coalition in the state and the party may get a share in the tickets. “The talks have been constructive. They were more successful than expected. Every seat was discussed,” he said.
“The MVA, VBA, communists and peasants and Workers party will take on the communal forces together in Maharashtra. There are no differences amongst us,” the NCP leader said.
“It is true that Shiv Sena wants to contest on more seats and talks are on between Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray on that. Seats cannot be increased just for the sake of it, but for winning,” he said on demands made by Shiv Sena.
The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi is an organisation headed by Prakash Ambedkar, who is the grandson of B R Ambedkar. Prakash Ambedkar has a hold in the Vidharba region and may seek seats in the Akola area of Vidharba in Maharashtra. He has also been a three-time MP from Akola constituency.
Maharashtra has 48 Lok Sabha seats, and the Congress is seeking 26 seats while the Shiv Sena is learned to be demanding 23 seats, while NP has not disclosed on how many seats it wishes to contest on.
Sources said the seat-sharing talks will again be held between top leaders of the three parties which includes Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray, who are likely to meet Sonia Gandhi around January 14 and 15.
Talks were also held separately between Congress and Samajwadi Party leaders for Uttar Pradesh, where Ram Gopal Yadav and Javed Ali were present.
“We will hold further discussions on seat-sharing on January 12 and soon after talks are finalized we will let you know the details,” Yadav said.
“Why should we do discussions with BSP,” he said on the talk of inclusion of Bahujan Samaj Party in the alliance.
Ali said discussions were held on certain issues for the coalition and “we will have another round of talks on January 12 and then details will be worked out.”
The Congress is holding talks with various constituents of the INDIA bloc state-wise and holding separate talks for each state before seat-sharing is finalized with them.
The opposition alliance is seeking to contest all Lok Sabha seats unitedly to take on and defeat the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections.
