Union Home Minister Amit Shah convened discussions on seat sharing in Maharashtra for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, engaging with coalition partners Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde and NCP president Ajit Pawar. The meeting, held late Friday, involved talks between Shinde and Pawar, who currently serve as the chief minister and deputy chief minister of Maharashtra respectively, with Shah. Maharashtra's deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, a senior BJP leader, was also in attendance during the discussions.
Shinde-led Shiv Sena, Pawar-led NCP and the BJP will contest the Lok Sabha elections in alliance in Maharashtra which sends 48 members to the lower house of Parliament. BJP had won 23 of the 25 seats it had contested in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, while its then alliance partner undivided Shiv Sena won 18 seats of the 23 seats it had contested. The undivided NCP, as part of the opposition alliance, had contested 19 seats and managed to win four.
In 2019, following the Maharashtra assembly elections, the Shiv Sena, in collaboration with the Congress and the NCP, formed a coalition government. However, this alliance fractured in 2022 when Eknath Shinde departed with a majority of the party's MPs and MLAs, aligning with the BJP. Subsequently, the BJP, as the largest party, established a coalition administration with Shinde assuming the role of chief minister. Similarly, Ajit Pawar garnered support from a majority of MLAs and allied with the BJP-Shiv Sena government last year. Both the Shinde and Ajit Pawar factions have been officially recognized as the 'real' Shiv Sena and 'real' NCP by the Election Commission and the Maharashtra assembly Speaker.
With an eye on securing the 370-mark in the 543-member Lok Sabha, the BJP aims to contest over 30 seats in the upcoming elections. However, tensions have surfaced among the coalition partners concerning certain Lok Sabha constituencies, including South Mumbai and Thane (held by Shiv Sena) and Raigad (NCP stronghold), over which the BJP has asserted its claim.