216 seats discussed, agreement with Samajwadi Party in 2 days": Maharashtra LoP Wadettiwar on seat sharing

MUMBAI: Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Assembly Vijay Wadettiwar said on Thursday that 216 seats have been discussed by the Maha Vikas Aghadi and the remaining seats will be discussed in today's meeting.

The MVA is holding a meeting at Sofitel Hotel BKC in Mumbai ahead of the Maharashtra assembly polls, that will be held in a single phase on November 20.

Wadettiwar, while talking to the media said, "216 seats have been discussed in MVA. The remaining 66 seats will be discussed today. So it is expected that by this evening or tomorrow, MVA seat sharing will be announced through press conference."

Further, speaking on a post of Samajwadi Party Maharashtra President Abu Azmi who showed dissent with the MVA over seat sharing, the Congress leader said that no doors of the alliance are closed for SP and all the problems will be solved within two days.

"No door of the Maha Vikas Aghadi is closed for Samajwadi party. Our first discussion has taken place. We will have seat sharing today and after discussing with them, we will solve it in two days," Wadettiwar said.

"In today's meeting, we will discuss about giving seats to Samajwadi Party. Like the agreement happened in UP with Samajwadi Party, same will happen in Maharashtra too," he added.

Samajwadi Party Maharashtra Chief Abu Azmi on Wednesday posted on X and said that the MVA should not release the list of candidates without talking to them.

"In Maharashtra, if any party of Mahavikas Aghadi, be it Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (SP), or Shiv Sena (UBT), releases the list of assembly candidates without talking to Samajwadi Party or taking them into confidence, it means that they do not consider Samajwadi Party as a part of Mahavikas Aghadi. It would be wrong for any party to announce candidates without talking to Samajwadi Party. Whereas the objective of Mahavikas Aghadi is to keep all secular parties together and fight against the communal government," he said.

"In these circumstances, I would like to take permission from our National President Akhilesh Yadav Ji that whatever be the result of the assembly elections in Maharashtra - Samajwadi Party would like to contest as many seats as possible in the assemblies where it is strong," he added.

Assembly elections in Maharashtra will be held in a single phase on November 20, the Election Commission of India announced on Tuesday (October 15, 2024). With this, the political parties have begun gearing up for an election that will be unprecedented in many ways.

In the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls, the Congress and unified Shiv Sena had won 154 out of 288 seats as part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition. However, this time around the Shiv Sena (UBT), Sharad Pawar's NCP and Congress are in alliance to counter the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance.

In the Lok Sabha election held this year, MVA won 30 of the state's 48 Lok Sabha seats. The ruling alliance won 17. One seat went to an Independent candidate.