After meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Friday night to discuss the seat-sharing arrangement among the ruling alliance partners for the upcoming Assembly polls in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Saturday said talks are in final stage and that consensus has to be reached only on 30-35 seats out of the total 288 seats.
He said that the final seat-sharing may be announced in a day or two. “Our discussion (with Shah) was positive and constructive. The differences were ironed out and talks are in the final stage, without any issues. There are just 30-35 seats on which the final talks are pending. If needed, a discussion will take place with Shah again and it would be finalised in a day or two,” Shinde said.
He, however, skirted a question on the chief ministerial face. “We want to bring the ruling alliance government again in the state and we are confident of coming to power again,” he said.
Shinde along with Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar met Shah late Friday night to resolve the differences among the allies — BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP — on seat-sharing.
Fadnavis said the issues among the allies were sorted out and the talks are in the final stage. “There are only a few seats on which talks are pending and would be cleared in a day or two. The remaining seats have been cleared and it has been decided that the alliance partners can announce candidates on the cleared seats,” Fadnavis said.
According to sources, the ruling alliance has reached a consensus on 250-255 seats and talks are on for the remaining seats. As per the preliminary seat-sharing formulae, the BJP is likely to contest on 150-55 seats, NCP on 50-55 seats and Shiv Sena on 80-85 seats.
Meanwhile, before kickstarting the election campaign Shinde is all set to visit Guwahati for ‘darshan’ of Kamakhya Devi, which Shinde and his MLAs had visited in June 2022 after launching a rebellion against Uddhav Thackeray and before forming a government in the state with the BJP.
When asked about the visit, he said that Assam Chief Minister Hemanta Biswa Sarma had invited him and he would like to visit the shrine.