Ajit’s NCP wants seat-sharing based on merit

Maharashtra Dy CM Ajit Pawar. File pic

The Ajit Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) wants the Mahayuti partners, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena (Shinde) to share the Assembly seats on (electoral) merit basis. It has reminded about the discussion the partners had about it and is expected to take a tougher stand while negotiating on the table.

The Parliamentary Board of the NCP (AP) met in Mumbai on Tuesday. It discussed the basics of seat-sharing and preparation for the third phase of Ajit Pawar's Jansamvad Yatra. The board charted out a plan to review constituencies and prepare accordingly.

The party's State President Sunil Tatkare said after the meeting that the Lok Sabha elections had a formula of 'sitting getting' (incumbent party gets the constituency), "but it has been decided at the Mahayuti meeting that winnability should be one of the considerations for the Assembly elections".

Tatkare said what Ajit Pawar said was not about contesting 60 seats. "He meant that the party had won 54 seats in 2019, and with independents and smaller parties supporting us, we are 60 MLAs.

He said we must have this [least] number in mind while going ahead in preparations," added Tatkare, indicating that the NCP would want more than 60 seats. Sources said the number could be somewhere near 80 seats.

The Maharashtra Assembly has 288 seats. The BJP along with its supporting cast totals 115, and the Shinde Sena has 40 of its own. Some independents and smaller parties that had pledged support to Shinde during the 2022 coup are not sure about a political stand yet.

In the Lok Sabha polls, Ajit Pawar's party was given only four seats, of which it won just one. In fact, it did not bicker much then and accepted the BJP's offers for exchanging segments. In one of the barters, NCP got a seat in Rajya Sabha, for vacating Satara for a BJP candidate. It is said that Ajit Pawar was promised a liberal share in the Assembly polls in return for the 'no-insistence policy' in Lok Sabha.