A sulking alliance partner, seat swapping talks, finalising distribution of corporations, and Legislative Council seats — these were included in the agenda of a packed Mumbai visit by Union Home Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Amit Shah as he took stock of poll-bound Maharashtra. State party leaders said the focus of Mr. Shah’s visit would be disgruntled sections, with special attention for Other Backward Classes (OBC). Senior leaders of the ruling Mahayuti alliance are likely to meet in Delhi next week for another round of discussions.
Sources in the party said that in view of the seat sharing tussle within the Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra, the BJP State leadership told Mr. Shah there should be a friendly fight on at least 25 seats. Mr. Shah is on a two-day visit to Mumbai to hold meetings with the BJP’s State leaders, and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. While the BJP may fight on around 150 seats, sources in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)-Ajit Pawar faction said they were looking at securing about 70 seats.
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The internal meeting held with the BJP’s State leaders late on Sunday night took stock of the organisational structure, and discussed strengthening and restructuring measures. “Internally, within the BJP, almost 50% seats have been finalised. The candidates might start receiving calls after Ghatasthapana (Navaratri),” senior sources in the party told The Hindu.
“There is a tie on at least 25 seats that are wanted by two parties. There are seats like Indapur and Amravati, where the tie cannot be solved. In such constituencies, there is a proposal for friendly fights,” a source in the BJP said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Shah reviewed the BJP’s organisational structure. Sources said Raosaheb Danve and Pankaja Munde spoke about Marathwada. Ravindra Chavan, who looks after the party’s organisation in coastal Maharashtra, provided information on that region. Girish Mahajan is the in-charge of Khandesh. Chandrakant Patil spoke of organisational strength in western Maharashtra.
Ajit Pawar sulking?
A senior source in the NCP-Ajit Pawar faction said seat sharing talks had been going on between Ajit Pawar, Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis for the past 15-20 days. “Around 40 seats were up for discussion. We will definitely not leave the sitting seats. We are open to exchanging three to four seats. We also want 10-12 seats from the Congress’s quota,” the source said.
At a meeting held at the airport, Mr. Ajit Pawar is learnt to have expressed his desire to be named the Chief Minister after the elections. He spoke of the ‘Bihar pattern’, seeking an assurance from the BJP on it, sources said.
“There are several issues on which the talks took place. There are some seats that are with us, that the BJP needs badly. We are happy that the highest party leadership of the BJP is taking such keen interest in the talks,” a party leader said.
For a long period of time, the three Mahayuti alliance partners had not been able to come to a consensus on the allocation of corporations (‘mahamandals’). Sources indicated that the list of corporations had been finalised in the past two days. This would help reduce discontentment among leaders of all three parties as they had been expecting to secure these allocations.
Sources said that the decision was taken on the 12 seats in the Legislative Council from the Governor’s quota. Of the 12 seats, six would be given to the BJP, three to NCP-Ajit Pawar, and three to the Shiv Sena-Eknath Shinde faction. The announcement of names is likely to take place by the first day of Navaratri, sources said.
Published - September 09, 2024 05:59 pm IST
