INDIA Bloc Seat Sharing Talks In Progress For Maharashtra, UP Next

The Opposition INDIA bloc is moving fast with discussions on seat-sharing, scheduling meetings cheek-by-jowl in multiple states. After talks started on Delhi and Punjab, today is the turn of two of the country's largest states -- Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra -- which account for 128 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats.

While a meeting is on way in Mumbai between the Shiv Sea UBT, Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress in Maharashtra, one more is scheduled this evening to divide the 80 seats of Uttar Pradesh.That will be held at 6 pm at the Delhi residence of senior party leader Mukul Wasnik.

Not a single one of these negotiations are expected to be easy for the Congress.

While there is no love lost between the party and the Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party and Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party, talks with MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi) allies in Maharashtra also are expected to come with its own set of challenges.

The Shiv Sena UBT has made it clear that as the "biggest party" in the alliance, it expects no less than 23 seats.

"This is Maharashtra, and Shiv Sena is the biggest party here... We have always said that Shiv Sena has always been fighting on 23 seats in the Lok Sabha elections including Dadra and Nagar Haveli and that will be firm," senior party leader Sanjay Raut had said.

This would leave exactly 25 seats to be divided between Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress, which has got a limited say, given the minimum heft it has in the state.

In the 2019 assembly elections, the Congress won only 44 seats in the 288-member assembly -- way lower than either of its allies.

In Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party is not expected to be in a forgiving mood given the state Congress's refusal to share any seats in the assembly elections. State party chief Kamal Nath had refused to honour the central leadership's commitment for six seats in the state.

The ripples were very public. Akhilesh Yadav's swipes at the Congress were followed by the party's crushing defeat in the three heartland states and the sacking of Kamal Nath from the top post.

The situation is further complicated by the Congress's poor performance in Uttar Pradesh. The Samajwadi Party considers it liability since the assembly polls of 2017, when the two parties contested as allies and got trounced.

The Samajwadi Party, which was ruling the state since 2012, is yet to gain enough ground to defeat the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government.

The SP, which got reduced to 47 seats in 2017 from the 224 it had, recouped some of the seats last year. It won 111 seats, up by 64. But the BJP was way ahead with 255 seats.

Congress's discussion with AAP is also proving contentious. While the party wants 4 seats in Delhi and seven seats in Punjab, AAP is not ready to comply. In both Delhi and Punjab, the ruling party wants the bigger share of seats. AAP also wants to contest in Goa, Haryana and Gujarat, sources said.  

In Bengal, Congress would like to have five seats. But Trinamool Congress chief and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has made it clear that she is not ready to offer any. The matter has not been officially discussed yet.

In Bihar, the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal have conducted the preliminary talks. Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United will not settle for less than 17 of the state's 40 seats. It is likely that the RJD would also contest 17 seats in line with the 2015 assembly polls formula. Five seats can go to the Congress and one to the CPI-ML.