New Delhi: There are news reports about alliances and seat-sharing deals being reached in the states.MVA comes togetherThe Maha Vikas Aghadi or Maharashtra’s MVA alliance, knocked off power in an Eknath Shinde-led coup last year, is reported to have agreed on a seat-sharing arrangement. The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), the Congress and the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will contest 48 seats in the state, it is reported. The state has the highest number of seats in the country after UP’s 80 seats. Congress leaders Nana Falgunrao Patole, Prithviraj Chavan, Varsha Gaikwad, NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) leaders Jayant Patil, Jitendra Awhad and Anil Deshmukh, and Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Raut and Vinayak Raut participated in the meeting, according to news agency PTI. The final agreement is said to be announced in a press conference later. Sanjay Raut, MP and spokesperson for the UBT faction, said that no proposal (as reported in a section of the press) has come forth from the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi’s Prakash Ambedkar, for a seat to Manoj Jarange Patil from Jalna. Patil has emerged as the focal point of the intense protests for Maratha reservations across the state that have proved to be a big thorn in the BJP-Eknath Shinde-Ajit Pawar government’s plans.The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had won 23 Lok Sabha seats, its then-alliance partner Shiv Sena (undivided) had bagged 18, undivided NCP had won four. Congress and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) had won one seat each. An independent candidate had won one seat. There were reports of “nine seats” holding up the alliance a week ago, which appear to have been ironed out.Tamil Nadu: DMK + alliesThe DMK on Thursday (February 29) finalised its seat-sharing talks with the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), “allotting two seats each to both Left parties. The constituencies are to be decided upon later,” the Hindu reported. The decision was made during a meeting between the Left parties at the DMK head office on Thursday morning.The DMK had started finalising seat-sharing pacts with its allies last week. Like with the Left parties, retaining the numbers they contested together in the 2019 election, DMK allotted the Ramanathapuram constituency to the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and Namakkal to the Kongunadu Makkal Desiya Katchi (KMDK). The talks between the DMK and the MDMK would continue, MDMK were reported to have said earlier. “We have asked for two Lok Sabha seats and one Rajya Sabha seat. Today’s talks were satisfactory. Talks will continue,” MDMK’s Arjun Raj told reporters after meeting the DMK seat-sharing committee.The DMK’s seat-sharing committee is led by T.R. Baalu while K.N. Nehru, I. Periyasamy, K. Ponmudy, A. Raja, M.R.K. Panneerselvam and Tiruchi N. Siva are the other members.BJP meetsThe BJP’s Central Election Committee meeting too was held at the party headquarters in Delhi on Thursday. The meeting is said to have focused on Lok Sabha election seats across 17 states. “During the meeting, decisions were made regarding over 155 seats, the details of which are expected to be released within the next couple of days”, say news reports.
