MVA announces seat-sharing in Maharashtra; Congress to contest 17 Lok Sabha seats, Shiv Sena (UBT) 21

MUMBAI: After weeks of hectic negotiations, Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) constituents on Tuesday announced their seat-sharing arrangement for Maharashtra's 48 Lok Sabha seats. Under the arrangement, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) will contest 21 seats, Congress will fight on 17 seats and Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) will put up candidates in 10 seats. The seat-sharing arrangement was jointly announced by NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole.

The MVA and the ruling Mahayuti, comprising the BJP, NCP led by Ajit Pawar and Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde are in tough contest for the 48 parliamentary seats in Maharashtra. The BJP and the undivided Shiv Sena fought the 2019 Lok Sabha polls together and won 23 and 18 seats respectively.

The Lok Sabha polls will be held in the state in five phases from April 19 to May 20. In the first phase on April 19, Ramtek, Nagpur, Bhandara-Gondiya, Gadchiroli-Chimur, and Chandrapur will go to polls. Buldhana, Akola, Amravati, Wardha, Yavatmal-Washim, Hingoli, Nanded, and Parbhani will vote in the second phase on April 26.

Raigad, Baramati, Osmanabad, Latur, Solapur, Madha, Sangli, Satara, Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, and Kolhapur will vote in the third phase to be held on May 7. Polling will be held across Nandurbhar, Jalgaon, Raver, Jalna, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Maval, Pune, Shirur, Ahmednagar, Beed, and Shirdi in the fourth phase on May 13. Dhule, Dindori, Nashik, Palghar, Kalyan, Thane, Mumbai North, Mumbai North-West, Mumbai North-East, Mumbai North-Central, Mumbai South and Mumbai South-Central will vote in the final phase on May 20. Votes will be counted on June 4.