Amid a tug-of-war between Congress and the Shiv Sena (UBT) over seat sharing in Maharashtra ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2024, Shiva Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut expressed confidence in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance, saying that the discussion on seat sharing is underway.
Addressing a press conference, Raut said, “There is no formula for seat sharing. The person who has the power to win will get that seat. There is no difference between us. Our talks are going on with the central leaders, and the right decision will be taken at the right time,” Raut said.
“We are very positive about taking Prakash Ambedkar into the MVA alliance; he is also speaking strongly in favour of the Constitution,” he said.
Earlier, former Lok Sabha MP Prakash Ambedkar, the grandson of Dr BR Ambedkar, reiterated his interest in joining the MVA and INDIA alliance ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
VBA (Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi) President Prakash Ambedkar, in his letter to Mallikarjun Kharge, Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray, stressed the need to adopt his proposed formula of 12 seats for each party.
He termed the “12+12+12+12 formula” as a ‘conflict-free’ plan to decide on the number of seat sharing in the state.
Emphasising that ‘defeating Modi should be the only priority for MVA’, Prakash Ambedkar in his letter mentioned that the “VBA desires that the parties within the MVA- Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray), Nationalist Congress Party, Indian National Congress and VBA should fight the upcoming Lok Sabha elections together and on an equal number of seats as equal partners.”
Meanwhile, amid debate and discussion in the MVA over seat sharing between parties of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the Shiv Sena (UBT) has demanded 23 seats out of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra.
However, the Congress party, in reply to the demand of Shiv Sena (UBT), said that seat sharing is a complicated subject and the decision can’t be taken 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,” said Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam. (ANI)
