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In a sign of differences between the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena and the Congress just a month before the Maharashtra Assembly elections, the regional party has said that it will not hold seat-sharing discussions with state Congress President Nana Patole.
On Thursday, sources in the opposition alliance, comprising the Congress, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which is known as the Maha Vikas Aghadi, had said that a consensus had been reached on 260 of the state’s 288 Assembly constituencies.
Speaking on Friday, however, senior Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader and MP Sanjay Raut said the allies had agreed on only 200 seats and took a dig at Nana Patole without naming him, saying leaders in the Maharashtra Congress leaders are “not capable of taking decisions”.
Mr Raut said he had spoken to Congress general secretaries KC Venugopal and Mukul Wasnik and the party’s Maharashtra in-charge Ramesh Chennithala and would also talk to Rahul Gandhi later in the day.
“The pending decision should be expedited. Very little time is left. Maharashtra Congress leaders are not capable of making decisions. They have to send the list to Delhi frequently and then discussions happen. The decision (on seat-sharing) will have to be taken at the earliest,” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Sources told NDTV that the differences between the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Congress arose because the Uddhav Thackeray-led party wanted to contest more seats in the Vidarbha region, which Mr Patole was not willing to concede.
Riding high on its performance in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha elections, in which it emerged as the single-largest party with 13 of 48 seats, the party is hoping to do well in Vidarbha, where it has had a good track record in previous elections as well. The region is also a stronghold of Mr Patole.
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