Mahayuti yet to seal seat-sharing deal; decision likely by March 11

Mumbai: Partners in the BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP grand alliance are likely to seal their seat-sharing ratio in Maharashtra by March 11, as there were some disagreements within the top leaders from the three parties who met in Delhi late on Friday.
“We will be meeting again and finalise the sea-sharing by March 11,” senior NCP leader and MP Praful Patel said. “We will get a respectable share of seats. Discussions are on. Media reports saying that we are getting only three or four seats, are not true.’’
Chief minister Eknath Shinde and his two deputies, Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, flew to Delhi on Friday and discussed the matter with top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, but they had disagreements.
Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said, “We have had positive talks on Friday and 80% of our job is done. We have been discussing with each other on the phone the rest 20%.”
Shiv Sena MP Gajanan Kirtikar also said that the discussion will take two to three more days. The BJP contested three seats in Mumbai in 2019, but this time, they want four.
Across the state, BJP is insisting on contesting 34 seats. That includes seats won by its allies in the 2019 elections. The three parties have not decided on Ramtek, Maval, Washim-Yavatmal and Kolhapur parliamentary seats.
Amid speculations of a dispute between the Thackeray faction and Congress over the Mumbai Northwest Lok Sabha constituency, Uddhav Thackeray has announced the candidature of Amol Kirtikar son of MP Gajanan Kirtikar for the Mumbai Northwest Lok Sabha constituency.