Ajit Pawar's NCP will contest four of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra (File)
After days of hectic discussions, the Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra, comprising the BJP, Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena, and Ajit Pawar's NCP, has made more headway in their seat-share talks.
The NDA partners have finalised the four seats from where Ajit Pawar will field its contestants, sources told NDTV. Mr Pawar is bargaining for more seats in the state, they added.
According to talks so far, Sharad Pawar's nephew, the leader of the "real" NCP, will field candidates from Baramati, Raigarh, Shirur, and Parbhani, and the BJP will get 31 seats, while the Shiv Sena will contest 13.
Baramati is the Pawars bastion. For decades, the political family has fought from the seat and won. However, this year will see a contest between family members after a shock rebellion by Ajit Pawar split the party and its supporters.
The sitting MP from Baramati and Ajit Pawar's cousin, Supriya Sule, will likely face off with her sister-in-law and Mr Pawar's wife, Sunetra Pawar.
Ajit Pawar has fielded NCP's Maharashtra president and sitting MP Sunil Tatkare to defend Raigarh against Anant Geete, who will likely be named to contest from this constituency by Uddhav Thackeray's Sena. Mr Geete had earlier served as a Union Minister in PM Narendra Modi's first term.
In Shirur, the NCP may field Pradeep Kand or Adhalrao Patil. Both leaders are not a part of the party. While Mr Patil, a former Shiv Sena MP, was appointed as the chief of the MHADA last month by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Mr Kand is the chief of a district cooperative bank in Pune.
The NCP will likely field Rajesh Vitekar against Sanjay Haribhau Jadhav - Parbhani's sitting MP and a leader from the Uddhav Thackeray camp. Mr Vitekar is the president of the Parbhani Zilla Parishad.
In the seat-sharing talks so far, 31 of the state's 48 seats will be contested by the BJP, 13 by Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, and four by Ajit Pawar's NCP.