Maharashtra Assembly Elections: Shinde Sena wants 17 Mumbai seats without BJP clash

Eknath Shinde at the Shiv Sena foundation day on June 19. File pic

Shinde Sena is preparing to contest 17 out of 36 Assembly seats in Mumbai, without seeking any seat that the BJP and NCP had contested or won in 2019. CM Eknath Shinde met his party leaders on Thursday to decide a roadmap for the Assembly elections. Sources said the party is preparing to contest 100-125 out of 288 seats across Maharashtra

According to the information, Shinde has appointed observers for every seat it wants to contest to monitor the situation and facilitate further decisions. He asked to expedite the membership drive and reach out to the people with the government's welfare schemes and pro-public decisions taken since July 2022.

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. File pic/Ashish Raje

As far as Mumbai is concerned, the undivided Sena had won 14 seats in alliance with the BJP in 2019. The BJP had won 16 and undivided NCP one. Congress had four and Samajwadi one. Of the 14 Sena MLAs, eight are with Shinde and the rest with Uddhav Thackeray. If both factions claim and get the seats fought in 2019, the fight could be between them.

Other than the BJP, the NCP (Ajit Pawar) will also be sharing seats as part of the Mahayuti (NDA). Meanwhile, NCP (SP) minister Dharamrao Baba Atram said that his party would be contesting more than 80 seats.

The BJP is also contemplating a formula to share seats and it is expected to begin talks with partners soon. The party had a series of meetings early this week to analyse the situation and mull prospects in view of its dismal show in the Lok Sabha elections. The party leadership's core panel was in a meeting in Mumbai late Thursday evening.

36
No. of Assembly seats in city