AFTER THE intervention of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who held meetings late into Tuesday and early Wednesday, BJP sources claimed to have worked out a seat-sharing formula for Maharashtra. As per the leaders, the BJP is likely to contest 30-32 of the 48 seats in the state, with the Shinde Shiv Sena fighting 11-13 and the NCP (Ajit Pawar) 5 seats. The talks held by Shah involved Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar. If the formula holds, it would mean big gains for the BJP as its partners had been demanding many more seats. Both the Ajit Pawar NCP and Shinde Sena, however, said the deal was far from done. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when it was in alliance with the undivided Shiv Sena, the BJP had contested 25 seats, and won 23. The Shiv Sena had contested 23 seats and won 18. The undivided NCP, which contested the elections with the Congress as an ally, had won 4 seats. The breakaway Shinde Sena now has support of 12 of the Sena's 18 MPs, while the Ajit Pawar-led NCP has 1 of the NCP's 4 MPs. The Shinde Sena had been claiming tickets for all the 18 seats the party won last time, while the Ajit Pawar NCP had been pressing for 10 seats. Asked about the party contesting 5 seats, Ajit Pawar NCP state chief and Lok Sabha MP Sunil Tatkare said: “There is no truth to reports that we are being offered only 4-5 seats. No numbers were finalised today (Wednesday). We will visit Delhi in a day or two and the final decision will be taken there.” Three leaders of the Shinde Sena also said the numbers had not been finalised. The bargaining for more seats by the two partners had led to talk of trouble in the alliance, forcing Shah to step in. Sources said that the BJP presented ground reports, including on the winnability of candidates, to make its point. A senior BJP functionary said: "While reassuring alliance partners about the party's willingness to accommodate them, Shah told Shinde and Ajit Pawar to reconcile to the ground reality. He cautioned the alliance partners against unreasonable aggression." The thrust was that they should all work as a team, keeping in sight the larger objective of winning 45-plus seats in Maharashtra. A highly placed source said only “some loose ends” are still to be tied up. “The outcome of the meeting was positive,” the leader said. After the talks held by Shah, Maharashtra BJP leaders, including Fadnavis, state party president Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar and state Legislative Council leader Praveen Darekar, headed to Delhi for a core committee meeting for further discussions. Sources said that there may be 8 to 10 new faces in the BJP list, as has been seen in other states, and that Union minister Nitin Gadkari will definitely contest from Nagpur again. Among the others, state ministers Sudhir Mungantiwar and Girish Mahahan are reportedly being considered for Chandrapur and Jalgaon Lok Sabha seats respectively. In Beed, the sulking Pankaja Munde is likely to replace her younger sister and sitting MP Pritam Munde. In Akola and Sangli, sitting MPs Sanjay Dhotre and Sanjay Kaka Patil, respectively, might be dropped. A BJP leader part of devising the poll strategy said: "Each and every seat was carefully discussed with the allies. All the details were discussed with adequate documentary evidence and surveys." According to party sources, the BJP has “not claimed any seat” where it believes its alliance partners can win comfortably. The seat-sharing formula would in any case establish the BJP as the big brother of the ruling alliance, with its partners Shinde Sena and NCP (Ajit Pawar) both truncated versions of their parties. For years a junior partner in its alliance with the undivided Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, the BJP has been steadily gaining ground. In the 2019 Assembly elections, it had won 105 of the 288 seats. Shah arrived in Maharashtra on Monday, and held several party meetings and rallies, at Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Akola, Jalgaon and Sambhajinagar, before holding the seat talks. During his Akola visit, Shah reviewed the poll preparations and interacted with state leaders regarding several Lok Sabha seats in Vidarbha, including Amravati, Akola, Buldhana, Yavatmal-Washim, Chandrapur and Wardha. Party leaders said that Shah's meetings, including a youth conclave, had given a direction to the party's campaign ahead of the polls. The message was that the 2024 Lok Sabha polls were “neither about the BJP nor Modi”, but about “achieving the goal of Viksit Bharat 2047”.
