Congress-Uddhav Thackeray Rift Expands Over Seats In Maharashtra’s Vidarbha

The rift between the Congress and ally Uddhav Thackeray’s faction of Shiv Sena has widened over the seats in Vidarbha. Altogether, the Sena (UBT) wants 17 seats from the Congress, which is apparently reluctant to hand over any. In Vidarbha, the Congress is confident of victory in all seats.

The two parties were already engaged in a tussle over seats in Mumbai and Nashik and following the war of words with state Congress chief Nana Patole, the Uddhav Thackeray faction has been scrambling for a solution.

Vidarbha has 62 assembly seats, covered under the 10 Lok Sabha seats. It represents 22 per cent of the seats in the 288-member assembly and could prove crucial in terms of gaining a majority.

In the recent Lok Sabha elections, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi won seven of the 10 seats in Vidarbha. The Congress performance was the best and it won five of the seats – way ahead of the two won by the BJP.

Now, the Shiv Sena (UBT) wants at least 8 of the 62 seats. Party leader Sanjay Raut has said while there is no doubt about the Congress having a strong base in Vidarbha, “we also had 4-5 MPs from there”.

“If we also get 1 or 2 seats, then there is no harm in it,” he has said.

The Congress has argued that the Sena (UBT) is creating a rift in the Maha Vikas Aghadi. Sources say the party is not going to step back regarding Vidarbha, even though veteran leader and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar has been firefighting in the background to patch up the rift. Sources said he has spoken to the Congress high command, as did Uddhav Thackeray.

Last week, at the Congress meet in Delhi under the chairmanship of party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, the state leaders were advised to speak with caution. The state leaders had told Mr Kharge that Uddhav Thackeray’s party is not cooperating with the seat sharing.

The Congress, though, has denied reports of rift and accused the BJP of spreading misinformation.

Congress’s Vijay Wadettiwar, leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly, said, “Discussions are still pending on 17 seats in MVA. We are having a dispute with the Thackeray faction on some seats. There are three parties in the alliance. Seat sharing between the three parties takes time.”

Mr Patole has said that the first list of Congress candidates will come on October 22.

Senior leaders are now actively discussing how to resolve the differences.

Polling for the 288-member Maharashtra assembly will be held in a single phase on November 20 and the counting of votes will be held on November 23.