Maharashtra Elections 2024: Battle all set to break into a war

Seat-sharing tussles in the alliances show the partners' intent of winning within the pacts first before they go out to fight each other in the November Assembly polls

Uddhav Thackeray is all set to defeat the Congress in the seat-sharing talks. He prevailed over Congress, which had to vacate the claim over certain seats. The ex-CM hasn't spared smaller allies of the Lok Sabha elections for not helping his party. Sena (UBT) has put up candidates where the left-wing Peasants and Workers' Party has its nominees. Thackeray had also ensured PWP leader Jayant Patil's defeat in the MLC polls in June. Thackeray also named some candidates for the constituencies that, according to the Congress, weren't finalised. However, it emerged later that the Congress had conceded the seats, like for example Versova and Bandra East, inviting the ire of local aspirants. There could be more such segments. Fingers are being pointed at the senior leaders, who have managed to get seats for their kin, friends and supporters, but not for the party loyalists elsewhere.

The blame game runs freely in the 'democratic' Congress that lost Haryana recently because of infighting. Accused of having a tacit understanding with Sena (UBT), which has inducted people from other parties to field them as candidates because it didn't have strong people within the local rank, the Congress, as a unit, has multiple challenges at hand. The people in Congress said they had strong candidates in many places, but the negotiators did not help them get seats/nominations. The state leaders put the ball in Delhi's high command's court, saying that after a certain stage, the talks were overtaken by the highest order of the party. State president Nana Patole was taken off negotiations duty following a spat with Sena leaders. Henceforth, Patole will have an excuse to harp on that he wasn't given a free hand while he insisted on more and winning seats.;

MVA's third partner, Sharad Pawar's NCP-SP has played cool. It has watched the Sena-Congress battle from the fences. It intervened only when requested by the partners, but simultaneously ensured its interests. It was Pawar who put brakes on Thackeray's ambition of portraying himself as the face of MVA (and the CM face). When Congress showed reluctance for Thackeray in not many words but action, Pawar also clarified his party's stand. Pawar and Congress together suggested that the CM was the thing to be decided after the elections (and when winning the majority). Ultimately, things have boiled down to the numbers the parties get—before and after the elections. That alone will decide the CMs on both sides. By Sunday, the seat-sharing from both sides was still in various stages. No exact numbers are being said, and confusion prevails in their respective parties.

The NDA has turned out to be an alliance with differences. Called Mahayuti (grand alliance) in Maharashtra, the fissures it showed were remarkably evident. The rift continued to widen at the ground level though the top leadership somehow showed camaraderie. With only a couple of days left for filing nominations and part lists released, the disputed segments are still being held back. In some places where its partners didn't concede, the BJP has given them candidates on loan. The leaders were inducted into the new parties before being declared as nominees. Some more arrangements of this sort will happen because what matters is the numbers that could take the allies closer to the Mantralaya throne. Loyalty of such 'arranged turncoats' is another matter of debate. They will jump fences when the situation demands.

As they couldn't decide here just like their MVA counterparts, the Mahayuti negotiators have shifted to the BJP master strategist and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Mahayuti's leaders have been frequenting Delhi for the final settlement to be guided by Shah. One such episode of negotiations turned dramatic last week when a proposed meeting had to be postponed. It was blamed on a communication gap because CM Eknath Shinde couldn't turn up in Delhi though DyCMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar had reached in time, but CM Eknath Shinde hadn't. Instead of Delhi, the CM was learnt to have taken a flight to Guwahati for Kamakhya Devi's darshan. It is said that he reached Delhi very late that night. The meeting happened the next day. It could be a genuine miscommunication or the CM's logistic delay, but it surely gave rise to talks of dismay and disagreement.

288
No. of Assembly seats in Maharashtra

Dharmendra Jore is political editor, mid-day. He tweets @dharmendrajore

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