CM Shinde needs to make 'sacrifices' like we did: Bawankule on seat-sharing

Maharashtra BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Wednesday said Chief Minister Eknath Shinde should be willing to make sacrifices in terms of seatsharing for the Maharashtra assembly elections 2024 like the BJP has done to keep the alliance intact reported news agency PTIThe comments come a day after the Election Commission announced the schedule for polls to 288 seats in the state assemblyVoting for the Maharashtra assembly elections 2024 is scheduled on November 20 and the counting will take place on November 23Chief Minister Eknath Shinde must remain openminded and be willing to make sacrifices We too have made sacrifices to uphold the alliance It is evident that the BJP aims to contest the seats we previously held Bawankule told a news channel in Nagpur reported PTIAs the dominant party in the alliance it is only natural for the BJP to seek more seats he saidAsked if Union Home Minister Amit Shah reportedly stated that the BJP sacrificed the CMs post while forging an alliance with Shindeled Shiv Sena Bawankule said I do not know what Union minister Amit Shah said to Shinde It is true that the chief minister holds the highest position and represents the government reported PTIHe said they have urged Shinde that as the larger party BJP should have a bigger share for contesting seats It is impossible to measure who made greater sacrifices the BJP leader saidAs the chief minister he could have expected more seats to contest in the assembly polls However it is not feasible to enter the elections with tension within the alliance Our stance is that we should be able to contest the seats we have previously won Bawankule said reported PTIThere is no point in demanding more seats to contest for the sake of numbers he saidAsked about the agenda of BJP leaders meeting in New Delhi scheduled on Wednesday Bawankule said We will discuss the candidates and the seats we want to contest There are some seats that we lost by a thin margin in the 2019 assembly elections reported PTIThere will not be any discussion on the seats won by the Shindeled Shiv Sena and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawarheaded NCP in todays meeting he saidThe BJP has conducted a detailed survey for Maharashtra and based on it the discussion will take place in Delhi he addedOn the possibility of swapping some seats with the alliance partners Bawankule said We may consider swapping a few seats with Shiv Sena Additionally there are strong candidates from both BJP and NCP as the NCP contested against us in the 2019 assembly polls We need more time to take a final decision in this matter reported PTIBawankule who is a member of the state legislative council also said he would not seek a ticket from the partyI won the Kamthi assembly seat in 2014 but the party asked me not to contest the 2019 polls I have been working as the BJP state president since some time The party will take a final decision on whether I should contest the election or not The BJP will win the Kamthi seat irrespective of the candidate he said reported PTIWith inputs from PTI