After months of deliberation and debates, the Maha Vikas Aghadi on Tuesday fianlised its seat-sharing formula for Maharashtra ahead of the Lok Sabha elections 2024. According to the seat-sharing deal, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena will contest 21 seats and the Congress will contest 17 seats in the state. Meanwhile, the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) faction will contest 10 seats in Maharashtra.
The poll-pact was announced after weeks of negotiations during a joint press conference, which was addressed by Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar, and the state Congress President Nana Patole. Former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Congress Legislature Party leader Balashaeb Thorat were also present at the press conference.
The Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra will be held in the state in five phases beginning from April 19 to May 20.
Shiv Sena will contest 21 Lok sabha seats including Jalgaon, Parbhani, Nashik, Palghar, Kalyan, Thane, Raigad, Maval, Osmanabad, Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Buldhana, Hathkanangkale, Aurangabad, Shirdi, Sangli, Hingoli, Yavatmal-Washim, Mumbai South, Mumbai South Central, Mumbai North West and Mumbai North East seats.
The grand old party has got Nandurbar, Dhule, Akola, Amravati, Nagpur, Bhandara-Gondia, Gadchiroli-Chimur, Chandrapur, Nanded, Jalna, Mumbai North Central, Mumbai North, Pune, Latur, Solapur, Kolhapur and Ramtek seats as per the seat-sharing pact.
The NCP(SP) will contest Baramati, Shirur, Satara, Bhiwandi, Dindori, Madha, Raver, Wardhan, Ahmednagar South and Beed seats.
Addressing a press conference at the Shiv Sena (UBT) office in south Mumbai, party head and former state chief minister Uddhav Thackeray stated: "The seat-sharing deal has been reached and in an alliance, winning is important and defeating the BJP is the goal. When victory against the BJP is the larger goal, we have to set aside certain differences," PTI quoted him as saying.