MVA's talks on seat-sharing on, there are no disputes: Anil Deshmukh on Lok Sabha elections

Anil Deshmukh. Pic/X

Senior leaders of the opposition's Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in Maharashtra are discussing seat-sharing for the Lok Sabha elections and there are no disputes among the alliance's constituents, NCP (SP) leader Anil Deshmukh said on Wednesday, reported news agency PTI.

The final decision will be announced soon, said the former state minister, talking to reporters in Pune.

"The leaders of the constituents of MVA -- Congress, (Uddhav Thackeray-led) Shiv Sena and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) -- are holding discussions and there is no dispute among us. Soon, Pawar, Thackeray and leaders from Congress will announce the decision," he said, reported PTI.

The alliance wanted to take Prakash Ambedkar's Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi along, Deshmukh said, reported PTI.

"It is our proposal and insistence that they come with the MVA and I am sure that Ambedkar will join us," he said, reported PTI.

Meanwhile, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar), held a meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday to discuss seat-sharing for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, with the three allies inviting Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) for talks, reported PTI.

The meeting, which was held at a private hotel in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) area of the city, lasted about three hours. However, what transpired at the meeting could not be known immediately.

Maharashtra has 48 Lok Sabha seats, the second-highest in the country after Uttar Pradesh's 80.

The MVA constituents - Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) headed by Uddhav Thackeray and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) led by Sharad Pawar - have been holding hectic parleys since the last several days to reach a consensus on seat-sharing, reported PTI.

Ahead of the MVA meeting in Mumbai, senior Congress leader and former minister Balasaheb Thorat separately met Ambedkar to hold talks. Talking to reporters, Thorat himself admitted it.

Ambedkar has already announced his candidates for Sangli and Wardha Lok Sabha constituencies, which the Congress generally contests.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the undivided Shiv Sena had won 18 seats and it is firm on getting to contest the same number of seats. Its leader Sanjay Raut has already hinted at his party's willingness to exchange some seats, but the party is unlikely to bring down the number of constituencies from where it wants to fight, reported PTI.

Raut and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader and MLA Jitendra Awhad have publicly appealed to Ambedkar not to take any step that would benefit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In the 2019 general elections, Ambedkar had fielded a candidate against Congress leader and former chief minister Ashok Chavan. The VBA candidate got more than 1.60 lakh votes, and Chavan lost the election against the BJP by a margin of nearly 40,000 votes, the analysts pointed out, reported PTI.

The ruling BJP has set the target of winning more than 45 Lok Sabha seats from Maharashtra along with its allies.

(With inputs from PTI)