Ajit Pawar Emerges Odd Man Out in Maharashtra NDA

BJP Faces Seat Adjustment Test For Maharashtra Assembly Elections

By Manish Anand

New Delhi, October 15: The Election Commission on Tuesday announced single-phase election for Maharashtra on November 20. The poll verdict will come on November 23.

The next government as per norm should be formed by November 26. There will be a window for just three days for the formation of the next government in Mumbai.

The Eknath Shinde-led saffron alliance is yet to finalise the seat adjustment in Maharashtra. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) per sources aims to contest about 160 Assembly seats in Maharashtra.

Also Read: Tribal Votes To Decide Jharkhand Assembly Poll Winner 

The Shiv Sena headed by Shinde per sources is also staking claims for at least 100 Assembly seats. “The BJP and the Shiv Sena of Shinde may end up staking claims on most of the 288 Assembly seats, leaving the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) of Ajit Pawar in a piquant situation,” said a senior BJP leader.

Mumbai-based political observers opine that the ideal situation for the BJP and Shinde-headed Shiv Sena will be to nudge Ajit Pawar to walk out of the grand ruling alliance.

“If Ajit Pawar’s party contests separately, the BJP and the Shiv Sena of Shinde may feel comfortable with seat adjustments. The two big parties, otherwise, will have to cut their ambitions to give respectable seats to Ajit Pawar-headed outfit,” said a senior political analyst from Mumbai.

The BJP per party insiders wants to contest more than half of the Assembly seats in Maharashtra. The saffron outfit in the event of winning the mandate in Maharashtra may seek to stake claims on the post of the chief minister also.

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But Shinde may not cede space with his party’s strong performance in the Lok Sabha elections. Shinde is likely to hold on to bargaining a large number of Assembly seats.

The BJP and the Shiv Sena of Shinde leaders had blamed the Ajit Pawar-led NCP for the poor showing in the Lok Sabha elections. However, Praful Patel of the NCP (Ajit Pawar) told reporters that there is no problem at all on seat adjustments in the ruling alliance in Maharashtra.

The Congress, the Shiv Sena of Uddhav Thackeray, and the NCP (Sharadchandra) also have to finalise the seat adjustments. The Congress and the Thackeray-headed Shiv Sena also have challenge on hand to arrive at mutually acceptable seat adjustments.

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About The Author

Manish Anand

Manish Anand is a senior journalist with more than two decades of hardcore reporting on beats such as Prime Minister’s Office, Parliament, BJP, Congress, Planning Commission, NITI Aayog, and scores of Union Ministries.

His past has been with The New Indian Express, The Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle, and The Statesman.

For about 15 years, Manish was also a regular commentator and host for talks on AIR on foreign affairs.

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