Mumbai (Maharashtra): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is preparing to contest on 35 seats in Maharashtra in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls while Shiv Sena may get nine seats and NCP could get 4 seats.
There are 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. It is understood that BJP will contest on 35 seats in Maharashtra and the saffron party has shown readiness to give 9 seats to Shiv Sena-led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and four seats to Nationalist Congress Party led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.
The talks are going on among all the three parties. BJP leaders including Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar, Maharashtra Minister Chandrakant Patil met party's top brass in New Delhi. The BJP has announced that 'Abaki Bar 400 Par' (this time over 400 seats) and all the three parties will get over 45 seats in Maharashtra in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah was on a two-day visit to Maharashtra. During this tour, he held various meetings related to seat-sharing.
It is understood that BJP will field 10 to 12 fresh candidates and some veteran leaders are likely to be dropped. BJP did an internal survey and it will select candidates after studying aspects like candidate's performance, ability to win, caste balance, support of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Meanwhile, sources said that Shinde is keen to contest on 13 seats. The undivided Shiv Sena contested led by Uddhav Thackeray had contested on 22 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and 18 MPs were elected in it. Among the 18 MPs, 13 joined Eknath Shinde.
The NCP led by Ajit Pawar reviewed 16 Lok Sabha seats - South Mumbai, Nashik, Dindori, Bhandara-Gondia, Dharashiv, Hingoli, Kolhapur, Buldhana, Satara, Raigad, Madha, Baramati, Parbhani, Shirur, Ahmednagar, Gadchiroli.
Currently, only one MP - Sunil Tatkare, who was elected from Raigad constituency, has supported Ajit Pawar. It is likely that NCP leaders including Ajit Pawar, Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare will meet BJP top brass in Delhi on Friday. Two meetings of the BJP core committee were held in Delhi on Wednesday night after discussions in Mumbai regarding seat allocation.
