Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on Friday (December 29) reiterated that his party would contest in 23 seats in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha elections as the party has always been fighting in as many seats. He said that talks on the seat-sharing in the state are underway with the top leadership of Congress. This comes after Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam said that Shiv Sena UBT’s demand for 23 seats is “a lot”.
According to sources, Congress is likely to demand 22 seats among the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance in Maharashtra, in today’s meeting in the national capital.
What did Sanjay Raut say?
“This is Maharashtra and Shiv Sena is the biggest party here. Congress is a national party... Uddhav Thackeray is having positive discussions with the decision-making leaders of Congress including Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge,” Sanjay Raut said.
“In such a situation, it does not matter what the village street person says,” Raut added in a veiled attack on Nirupam.
The Shiv Sena UBT leader noted that Congress did not win a single seat in Maharashtra and had to start from scratch.
“We have always said that Shiv Sena has always been fighting on 23 seats in the Lok Sabha elections and during our (INDIA alliance) meeting, we decided that discussions will be done later on the seats that we have won. Congress did not win a seat in Maharashtra so they have to start from zero (seats) but Congress is an important ally for us in MVA..." he said.
Congress meeting on Maharashtra
Congress has called a meeting of top leaders of its Maharashtra unit in the national capital on Friday (December 29) where it will discuss the distribution of seats among the Maha Vikas Aghadi, comprising NCP and Shiv Sena (UBT) in the state. According to sources, Congress is likely to demand 22 seats in the grand alliance out of the 48 seats in the Lok Sabha polls next year.
Prominent leaders of the party including Ashok Chavan, Prithviraj Chavan, Nana Patole, Balasaheb Thorat, Vijay Wadettiwar flew to Delhi to attend the meeting.
(With ANI inputs)
