Mumbai, Dec. 28 (IANS): With Lok Sabha elections round the corner, squabbles over seat-sharing has soured the mood in the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies, particularly the Congress and the Shiv Sena (UBT).

Shiv Sena (UBT)'s ex-Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has demanded a lion’s share of 23 seats -- out of the 48 in the state -- leading to consternation among the Congress and even the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) headed by Sharad Pawar.

Sanjay Raut, MP and chief spokesperson of Shiv Sena (UBT), has reiterated the party’s desire to contest 23 seats - which would leave just 25 for the Congress and the NCP (SP), which had split in July 2023, plus any other smaller allies who may need to be accommodated.

State Congress leaders have virtually spurned the SS-UBT claim, saying the party had split (in July 2022) and many of its MPs are now with the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, and hence the party could not be given so many seats now.

Hitting back, Raut said it is not for the Congress to decide whether the party has broken, and even if MPs and MLAs left the party, its voters are still with the Thackeray-led faction.

“All big or small decisions of the state Congress are taken in Delhi… So we have spoken to Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi after the fourth conclave of the INDIA bloc. We expressed our view to discuss the Maharashtra Lok Sabha seat allocation and the Congress leaders have welcomed it,” said Raut.

Accordingly, he said that there has been no official discussion on the issue with Maharashtra Congress leaders, and at this stage, it would not be appropriate to comment on individual claims on specific seats in the state.

Buttressing his arguments, Raut said that while the unified Shiv Sena had contested 23 seats and bagged 18 (in 2019), the Congress had won just one seat (Chandrapur), and it would have to restart virtually from scratch.

Another Congress leader and ex-MP, Sanjay Nirupam, also expressed reservations saying if SS-UBT takes away 23 seats, “what will be left for the Congress”.

“We are going to contest 23 seats, and we are saying this confidently and with responsibility… If some Maharashtra Congress leaders have problems, we are ignoring them as ultimately, their decision will be taken in Delhi,” Raut said.

Meanwhile, ex-CM and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan guardedly said that a coordination committee meeting will be held in Delhi on December 29 to discuss seat sharing, then the matter will be discussed with Maharashtra leaders, but declined to make any comments on the seat allocation row.

Raut said the question of including Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) in the MVA and the INDIA bloc has been discussed with Sharad Pawar, who also recently said he had taken it up with Kharge.

Incidentally, earlier this week, the VBA had presented its own formula - 12 seats each for the VBA, Congress, SS-UBT and NCP (SP) - to achieve the goal of unseating the Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Chavan added that irrespective of the number of seats anybody is claiming, “if they seriously want to defeat the BJP, then all should unite to fight the 2024 elections”.