MVA May See Friendly Fights in Oct 23 MLC Polls Over Seat Sharing, Says Sanjay Raut
Shiv Sena (UBT) Member of Parliament Sanjay Raut indicated on Sunday in Mumbai that the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance could opt for "friendly fights" in the upcoming Maharashtra Legislative Council elections if constituent parties fail to reach a consensus on seat-sharing. The biennial elections for the upper house of the state legislature are scheduled to take place on October 23.
The upcoming polls are being held for five Legislative Council seats representing Graduates' and Teachers' constituencies across Maharashtra. Raut stated that while his party's primary stance is to contest the elections unitedly as an alliance, differences have arisen because coalition partners hold varying calculations about their respective voter strength.
According to Raut, cross-party consultations have been underway in recent days. He said party representatives held a meeting four days ago with Nationalist Congress Party (SP) leader Shashikant Shinde regarding the council polls, and also held discussions with Congress leaders Harshvardhan Sapkal and Naseem Khan.
Raut explained that the seat-sharing negotiations have become complicated because each constituent party believes it has registered a significant number of voters in the contested constituencies. He maintained that while the Shiv Sena (UBT) wanted to fight together, allies have operated on different assessments of their political base.
The rift follows candidate selections by coalition partners. Last week, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge approved three candidates for the biennial elections, and the party subsequently announced nominees for council constituencies in Nagpur, Amravati, and Pune.
In response to these developments, Raut stated that the Shiv Sena (UBT) intends to contest the Graduate constituencies in Amravati and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. He announced that the party will formally declare its candidates for the seats within two days.
Raut added that discussions remain ongoing among the coalition partners. However, he stated that while a mutually agreeable decision would be ideal, the party is prepared to contest independently if talks fall through, asserting that the leadership has an independent party organisation to run.
