Maha Vikas Aghadi seat sharing talks to happen on Jan 30

Mumbai: Amid setbacks in Bihar, West Bengal and Punjab, the crisis-ridden Opposition I.N.D.I.A bloc would see to widen its base in Maharashtra this week when the Maha Vikas Aghadi takes the seat-sharing talks ahead after involving Prakash Ambekar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and convince Raju Shetti-led Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS) to join the formation.

The MVA seat-sharing talks are slated on 30 January in Mumbai.

The MVA in Maharashtra is led by Congress and the major partners are the Sharad Pawar-Supriya Sule-led parent group of the NCP and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT). In the initial rounds of negotiations, the Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India (Marxist) were present.

Ambedkar, the grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, a two-time Lok Sabha MP and one-term Rajya Sabha MP, would be offered the Akola seat, which he had represented earlier.

On the other hand, Shetti could be offered the Hatkanangale seat in Kolhapur district, which he had represented earlier. As of now, Shetti has not yet given any sort of commitment to the MVA.

The MVA is reaching out to many smaller parties and groups to increase its base and take on the BJP-led Maha Yuti.

The formulae of 2014 and 2019 general elections would not be applicable this time because of the splits in the 57-year-old Shiv Sena and 25-year-old NCP.

If one looks at the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP-Shiv Sena and Congress-NCP Democratic Front (DF) were pitted against each other.

In 2014, the BJP contested 24 seats and won 23 while Shiv Sena contested 20 seats and won 18, while the Congress contested 22 seats and won two while the NCP contested 21 seats and got 4.

In 2019, the BJP contested 25 seats and bagged 23 while Shiv Sena contested 23 and got 18, the Congress contested 25 seats and won one seat while the NCP contested 19 seats and won four.

However, the state politics changed after the 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly polls when the Thackeray-headed Shiv Sena split with BJP, its saffron alliance partner for 30 years and joined hands with the DF to form the MVA.

In June-July 2022, the Uddhav Thackeray-headed MVA was toppled by Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde who became the Chief Minister with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis becoming the Deputy Chief minister.

In June-July 2023, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP was split, and his nephew Ajit Pawar became the Deputy Chief minister.

After the split, in Shiv Sena, the ruling Shinde-group commands a strength of 13 MPs while the Shiv Sena (UBT) five.

On the other hand, the Sharad Pawar-Supriya Sule-led parent group commands a strength of three while Ajit Pawar one.

Ambedkar is very crucial for the MVA. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress-NCP Democratic Front has suffered a dent in votebank because of VBA and Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and defeated them in more than a dozen seats. However, the VBA-AIMIM alliance broke before the 2019 Assembly polls.