10 April,2024 10:38 AM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
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The Central Parliamentary Committee of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) party on Wednesday announced the third list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections 2024. The list mentions the names of candidates for two Lok Sabha constituencies.
Rishikant Shinde and Shriram Patil from Satara and Raver Lok Sabha constituencies, respectively.
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The NCP (SP) has already announced the candidates for Baramati (Supriya Sule), Shirur (Amol Kolhe), Wardha (Amar Kale), Dindori (Bhaskar Bhagre), Ahmednagar (Nilesh Lanke), Beed (Bajrang Sonawane) and Bhiwandi (Suresh Mhatre) seats.
Earlier, 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 a 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 finalised agreement concludes weeks of negotiations, with all parties gearing up for the Lok Sabha elections 2024 in Maharashtra scheduled in five phases from April 19 to May 20.
The agreement was achieved after the Congress relinquished its claims on the contentious Sangli and Bhiwandi seats, now designated for the Sena (UBT) and the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar), respectively.
Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole clarified that the party had not capitulated to its allies but strategically taken "a step back", emphasising that negotiations could not be prolonged indefinitely.
His statement comes in the backdrop of reports of some discontent within the state unit of Congress regarding the allocation of seats like Sangli and Bhiwandi and also the ceding of four out of six seats in Mumbai to the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena.
"We took a step back, we did not surrender," Patole affirmed to reporters while explaining that the final decision was reached after consultations with the party's central leadership.
Congress leaders tried their best to secure seats where the party had good prospects of winning, but there were limitations on stretching negotiations in view of the ongoing election process, he said.
(With inputs from Agencies)
