The seat-sharing on all 48 Lok Sabha seats in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) -- led by Shiv Sena-Uddhav Thackeray, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party-Sharad Pawar -- has been finalised. In a joint presser on Tuesday, the MVA announced that Uddhav Thackeray's Sena will contest the upcoming elections on 21 seats, Congress on 17 and Sharad Pawar's NCP on 10 seats.
NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena-UBT leader Uddhav Thackeray and state Congress president Nana Patole announced the poll pact for the 48 parliamentary seats in the state at a press conference in Mumbai after weeks of negotiations. Below is the list of all seats on which MVA partners will contest the polls.
Shivsena-UBT | 21 seats
- Jalgaon
- Buldhana
- Yavatmal-Washim
- Hingoli
- Parbhani
- Aurangabad
- Nashik
- Palghar
- Kalyan
- Thane
- Mumbai North West
- Mumbai North East
- Mumbai South Central
- Mumbai South
- Raigad
- Maval
- Shirdi
- Osmanabad
- Sangli
- Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg
- Hatkanangle
Congress | 17 seats
- Nandurbar
- Dhule
- Akola
- Amravati
- Ramtek
- Nagpur
- Bhandara-Gondiya
- Gadchiroli-Chimur
- Chandrapur
- Nanded
- Jalna
- Mumbai North
- Mumbai North Central
- Kolhapur
- Pune
- Latur
- Solapur
NCP- Sharad Chandra Pawar | 10 seats
- Raver
- Wardha
- Dindori
- Bhiwandi
- Baramati
- Shirur
- Ahmednagar
- Beed
- Madha
- Satara
All the three parties are also part of the Opposition's I.N.D.I.A bloc to challenge the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance in the upcoming elections.
Ahead of the polls, Congress' General Secretary in-charge of Communications Jairam Ramesh said, "...We have begun a house-to-house guarantee programme. We are distributing 8 crore guarantee cards to houses.
Rahul Gandhi is campaigning and so is Priyanka Gandhi...Mainly, we have three super-star campaigners, Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are campaigning in different states..."
A total of 204 candidates are in the fray for eight Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra that will go to polls in the second phase on April 26, an official said on Monday.
"There were 299 valid nominations. Of these 204 remain in the fray in Buldhana, Akola, Amravati, Wardha, Yavatmal-Washim, Hingoli, Nanded and Parbhani," he said.
In Parbhani, seven candidates withdrew their nomination forms, leaving 34 contestants in the fray, an official said.
Ruling alliance candidate Mahadev Jankar, who is also president of Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, has been allotted the symbol 'whistle', he added. Jankar will take on MP Sanjay Jadhav of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and Panjabrao Dakh (Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi).
In Hingoli, a total of 33 candidates will fight the polls after 15 Independents withdrew their nominations.
The main contest will be between Baburao Kadam of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Nagesh Patil Ashtikar of the Shiv Sena (UBT).
Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra will take place in the first five phases, beginning on April 19.
With inputs from PTI
