Maharashtra polls: 'Pawar's idea behind 85-85-85 formula for MVA allies'

After several rounds of hectic and, at times, acrimonious deliberations, leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) announced that their coalition’s key constituents – the Congress party, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) and Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP) – will contest 85 seats each in Maharashtra for the November 20 polls.

There may, however, be a “slight change” in the final seat tally allocated to each of the allies as the parties still have to discuss distribution of 15 assembly segments on which both Congress and Uddhav's party continue to stake claim. The Congress, Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) have also kept aside 18 assembly segments to be allotted among other potential allies, such as Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party, the CPI, CPM, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party and the Peasants and Workers Party of India (PWPI).

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Final seat-sharing formula tomorrow

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said clarity on the final seat-sharing formula is likely to emerge on Thursday. Raut, Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole, and Jayant Patil, chief of the Maharashtra unit of NCP (SP), announced the seat-sharing deal amid reports of pitched disagreements between the Congress and Uddhav’s Sena on how at least 15 constituencies should be distributed among the two parties.

'Pawar orchestrated talks'

MVA sources told The Federal that the decision to announce the ‘85 seats each’ formula was taken at the instance of Sharad Pawar, who both SS (UBT) and the Congress had approached to play mediator in a bid to break the stalemate. Pawar suggested that leaders of the three parties must “declare the number of seats on which unanimity has been achieved” so that the rival Mahayuti bloc of the BJP,

Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP “should not be able to mislead voters with false claims about disunity and instability of the MVA”, leaders privy to the seat-sharing discussions said.

Interestingly, while the Mahayuti partners have each declared a batch of candidates, the alliance has not yet announced the exact seat-sharing formula that the BJP, Sena and NCP have agreed upon.

SP may be given 5 seats

MVA sources said of the 18 constituencies kept aside for smaller allies, at least five are likely to be allocated to the Samajwadi Party against its demand of eight seats. After spurning the SP during the seat-sharing talks for the recently concluded Haryana polls, the Congress high command is reportedly keen on not giving Akhilesh more reason to complain. The Congress's shock defeat in Haryana has already had Akhilesh's close aides scorch the Grand Old Party with jibes about "not thinking of the interest of the INDIA bloc". With a dozen assembly by-polls due in UP, the SP, sources said, has also made it known to the Congress that their alliance can't just be UP-centric and that Akhilesh expects the Congress to accommodate his party in alliances in other states too.

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MVA leaders said an alternative formula that had also been discussed by the allies was to allot 105 seats to the Congress, 95 to the Sena (UBT) and 88 to the NCP (SP). However, this was eventually dropped.

“If we were to go by that break-up, then it would mean that the Congress, Sena and NCP would have to further slice up their share to allot seats to smaller parties from what they have got. It may not have been feasible given that the election date is just a month away and we need to put an end to seat-sharing discussions quickly so that the actual campaign can start,” a senior MVA leader said.

Sena quick to announce first list

Shortly after the MVA announced its preliminary seat-sharing formula, the Shiv Sena (UBT) declared its first list of 65 candidates, which included Uddhav’s son, Aaditya Thackeray, who will contest from the Worli assembly constituency in Mumbai.

Sources said that the Congress, which has already finalised nearly 70 candidates for Maharashtra, and the NCP (SP) are likely to release the first lists of their candidates by Thursday. Once the final seat-sharing agreement takes shape, sources said, senior alliance leaders would discuss the possibility of organising “a few joint MVA rallies with top leaders of all allies, perhaps one in each region of the state” to send a message of strength and unity.