Sanjay Raut of Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena faction on Tuesday announced that their party will contest on 21 Lok Sabha seats, Congress on 17 and Sharad Pawar’s party will fight in 10 Maharashtra constituencies.
Giving details, Raut said that they will contest on Jalgaon, Parbhani, Nashik, Palghar, Kalyan, Thane, Raigad, Maval, Dharashiv, Ratnagiri, Buldhana, Hatkanangle, Shirdi, Sambhajinagar, Sangli, Hingoli, Yavatmal, Mumbai South-Central, Mumbai North-West, Mumbai South and Mumbai North-East seats.
Constituencies where Sharad Pawar will field his candidates are Baramati, Shirur, Satara, Bhiwandi, Dindori, Madha, Raver, Wardha, Ahmednagar South and Beed 10 constituencies.
Congress, on the other hand, has agreed to fight elections in Nandurbar, Dhule, Akola, Amravati, Nagpur, Bhandara, Gadchiroli, Chandrapur, Nanded, Jalna, Mumbai North-Central, Pune , Latur, Solapur, Kolhapur and north Mumbai.
The poll pact for the 48 parliamentary seats in the state was announced at a press conference in Mumbai by NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray and state Congress president Nana Patole.
This comes after weeks of negotiations. Sharad Pawar had been holding meetings to resolve the issue, particularly over Sangli and Hatkanangle.
Sangli is considered a traditional Congress seat, which Uddhav’s Sena had been eyeing. A Congress leader, while speaking to ThePrint, had underscored the party’s stronghold on Sangli since Independence and questioned Shiv Sena’s (UBT) insistence on the seat despite lacking local support.
“The Sena (UBT) can bargain on any other seat but not Sangli, which has remained a Congress bastion for years since Independence. Sena (UBT) won’t even win the seat without our backing, so why do they want this seat? Our unit in Sangli has a strong objection to ceding this seat to Shiv Sena (UBT),” the leader was quoted.
It, however, seems that the Congress finally decided to sacrifice Sangli along with Hatkanangle as both seats went to Uddhav’s party.
Hatkanangle is an important seat for the Sena UBT as the party had secured victory here in 2019 when its candidate Dharyasheel Mane defeated Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana leader Raju Shetti. Mane later switched loyalties and went to Eknath Shinde faction, while Uddhav’s camp was trying to persuade Shetti to join their Maha Vikas Agadi alliance.
Some reports stated that there were also efforts to convince the Sena (UBT) to try its chances in Hatkanangale, and withdraw from Sangli.
Another interesting seat to watch out for in Maharashtra in Baramati, which is witnessing a tussle within the Pawar family after the split in the NCP.
Sunetra Pawar, wife of Ajit Pawar, is pitted against Supriya Sule, daughter of NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar in the fight which is crucial for the political career of Ajit Pawar and his uncle Sharad Pawar.
On Sunday, NCP (SCP) president Sharad Pawar had slammed deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for “splitting parties and families”.
“People work to unite others and get praise… What work did he do?” “He split political parties, organisations, and families… He said he broke two parties and took pride in it,” Pawar said at a meeting organised by Sena (UBT) in Baramati.
The Lok Sabha polls will be held in the state in five phases from April 19 to May 20.
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