BJP offers NCP 55-65 seats, but Ajit Pawar to stick to his demand of over 70

MUMBAI: As an alliance partner in the ruling Mahayuti coalition, the Ajit Pawar-led NCP has been offered 55 to 65 seats in the assembly elections by the BJP. However, the offer is not acceptable to the party leadership, and it has decided to stick to its demand of between 70 and 80 seats, NCP insiders said.
The issue was discussed in a meeting of top NCP leaders called two days after a meeting of the Mahayuti partners in Nagpur. The meeting lasted for two hours and only four leaders—Ajit Pawar, Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare and Chhagan Bhujbal—were present.
The NCP had initially demanded 80 to 90 seats but since the BJP was keen on contesting a minimum of 150 seats, it wanted the NCP to come down to between 55 and 65 seats. The BJP also has to accommodate the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, which has done well compared to the NCP in the recently held Lok Sabha elections. BJP leaders are also unsure whether the NCP will be able to retain its MLAs, who could return to the Sharad Pawar-led faction after the Ajit-led NCP’s poor showing in the Lok Sabha polls.
There were speculations that the NCP had agreed to contest around 60 seats, which was denied by the party leadership after Tuesday’s meeting. State NCP president Sunil Tatkare said that 60 seats was the current strength of the party, given the support of independents and certain MLAs from the Congress and other parties who could switch, and the NCP thus wanted more seats than that figure.
Two days ago, NCP president and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar asked party workers to start preparations for 60 seats as a beginning. “Considering the 54 we won in 2019, two independent MLAs and Congress MLAs such as Sulabha Khodke, Zeeshan Siddique and PWP MLA Shyamsundar Shinde, our current strength goes up to 60 seats. Thus, there is no issue in starting poll preparations on these many seats,” said Ajit in a party programme. He also added that they were in talks with their Mahayuti allies. “The decision on the rest of the seats will also be conveyed to party members once they are cleared during the talks,” he underlined.
Tatkare clarified that Ajit Pawar was not saying that the party would contest only 60 seats. “He wanted to say that preparations could be started on the party’s strength of 60 seats. For the rest of the seats, the discussion is on,” he told reporters after the crucial NCP meeting.
According to Mahayuti insiders, the ruling parties have agreed to leave the sitting seats for the parties who hold them. The decision was taken in a six-and-a-half-hour meeting held by chief minister Eknath Shinde and his two deputies, Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, on Saturday night.
Tatkare also said that they had finalised the criteria for seat-sharing. “The primary discussion of the seat-sharing formula happened in Saturday’s meeting,” he said. “We have also finalised the winnability criteria in the same meeting.”
The NCP won 54 seats in the last assembly polls. However, after the split in the party, over 40 MLAs sided with the Ajit Pawar-led faction while 13 to 14 MLAs remained loyal to NCP founder Sharad Pawar. After the Lok Sabha election results, a few NCP MLAs have started hobnobbing with the NCP (SP), leading to speculation that NCP MLAs are likely to again shift sides ahead of the state assembly elections.