After the defeat of the Mahayuti alliance in the Lok Sabha elections, the attitude of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray seems to have changed. He has decided to fight the assembly elections alone in a few months.
After giving unconditional support to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and NDA, he has now decided to fight the Maharashtra assembly elections alone. Raj Thackeray took this decision in the party meeting in Mumbai on Thursday. He made it clear in the meeting that his party is preparing to contest 225 to 250 seats out of the 288 assembly seats in the state.
Along with this, Raj Thackeray has also formed a team of five leaders to identify potential candidates. Not only this, Raj Thackeray is also going to start a tour of Maharashtra from August 1 to take feedback from the party workers of the state.
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MNS leader Sandeep Deshpande made it clear that he cannot wait for the proposal of the Mahayuti alliance. He also said that till now no consensus has been reached on seat sharing between BJP, Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) and NCP (Ajit Pawar faction).
The opposition took a jibe
However, opposition parties are taking a dig at MNS’s changed stance. Shiv Sena (UBT) spokesperson Anand Dubey said that Raj Thackeray supported NDA in the Lok Sabha elections and is now contesting alone in the assembly. He said that MNS is interested in coming to power on the strength of a single MLA. It seems that he is confused and he should clarify what he actually wants to say?
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) MLA and spokesperson Sanjay Shirsat said that MNS should contest the assembly elections along with Mahayuti. He said that final consensus on seat sharing has not been reached yet and when it is reached, MNS will also be given an offer.
How many seats can Mahayuti parties contest?
BJP will contest the maximum number of seats out of 288 seats in Maharashtra. NCP (AP) chief Ajit Pawar has claimed to contest 80 to 90 seats. Whereas, Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) has its eyes on about 100 seats. At the same time, BJP has decided to contest 160 to 170 seats. Amidst all this, MNS has announced to contest the maximum number of seats on its own.
Now the question is whether MNS contesting alone will harm the political equation between BJP and Shinde. Marathi and Hindutva are the common agenda of all three parties. In such a situation, division of votes due to MNS contesting alone can create big problems.
Elections are to be held in Maharashtra this year
Assembly elections are to be held in Maharashtra this year. The term of the assembly will end on 26 November this year. Elections will be held for 288 assembly seats here in October-November.
In the last election, BJP got 105 seats, Shiv Sena 56, NCP 54 and Congress 44 seats. However, after the election, Shiv Sena broke away from NDA and formed the government with NCP-Congress. Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray became the Chief Minister.
In June 2022, there was an internal strife in Shiv Sena. After this, Eknath Shinde broke away 40 MLAs of the party. Eknath Shinde became the Chief Minister with the support of BJP. Now Shiv Sena has split into two factions. Sharad Pawar’s NCP has also split into two factions – Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar. Sharad Pawar has recently claimed that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (NCP (SP) + Congress + Shiv Sena (Thackeray faction)) will win 225 seats in this year’s elections in Maharashtra.
Such were the results in Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra
BJP, Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) and Ajit Pawar’s NCP contested the elections together for 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. However, compared to 2019, this time NDA has suffered a lot in Maharashtra. The three parties together could win only 19 seats. In these, BJP and Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) won 9-9 seats and Ajit Pawar’s NCP won 1 seat. On the other hand, India Block won 28 seats. Congress won 13, Sharad Pawar’s NCP won 8 and Shiv Sena (Thackeray faction) won 7 seats. An independent candidate has won one seat.