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.
The meeting will also be attended by Mukul Wasnik, who is the convenor of the National Alliance Committee, Ashok Gehlot, who is also a part of the committee, Congress's Maharashtra in-charge Chennithala.
Notably, Shiv Sena (UBT) had demanded to avail 23 seats in Maharashtra for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that his party will contest 23 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam said that Shiv Sena UBT’s demand is “a lot”.
"Seat sharing is a complicated subject; a decision regarding that can't be taken so easily. If all parties in the INDIA block need to fight together and defeat the BJP, then we need to stop infighting. From the newspaper, I got to know that Shiv Sena has demanded 23 seats, which is a lot," Sanjay Nirupam said.
