Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Friday said his party would contest 23 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, and the seat-sharing talks with the Congress have to ”start from zero” as the latter had ‘not won any seat’ in the previous elections, a statement that drew a sharp response from the state Congress.
The majority of the Sena MPs are now with the Eknath Shinde faction and the Congress now happens to be the biggest party in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance, state Congress leaders Sanjay Nirupam and Milind Deora pointed out.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party and Congress are part of the MVA.
Speaking to reporters, Raut said the Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders, including Thackeray, have been holding talks with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and general secretary K C Venugopal over seat-sharing.
“We have said that we have been contesting 23 seats in Maharashtra and (will also contest) Dadra Nagar Haveli,” Raut said, adding that “the Shiv Sena is the biggest party” in Maharashtra while the Congress is a national party.
The current MP of Dadra Nagar Haveli is from the Sena.
“We have decided that the seats won by us (MVA allies) will be discussed later. The Congress does not figure in it as it has not won any seat in Maharashtra. So talks with the Congress have to start from zero in the state,” Raut further said.
Asked about state Congress leaders pointing out that the Sena is no longer a united party, Raut said the Congress did not split up, and yet it lost the recent assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
“A party is tested on the ground. Our party workers are with us. Even if our party split, we won the Andheri assembly bypoll and you (the Congress) won the Kasba Peth assembly bypoll with our support,” Raut said.
The Congress, nevertheless, remains an important part of the MVA, and the alliance partners will contest the coming elections together, he said.
With inputs from News18