In Maharashtra, BJP and allies stuck over nine seats: Which ones and why

With five days to go for the start of the five-phase elections in Maharashtra, Mahayuti partners BJP, Shiv Sena, and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are struggling to arrive at a consensus on nine of the 48 Lok Sabha seats that go to polls on in the third, fourth, and fifth phases and whose nomination dates close on April 19, April 25, and May 3 respectively.

Sources said the Mahayuti partners were still undecided on Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Satara, Aurangabad, Nashik, Thane, Palghar, Mumbai South, Mumbai North West, and Mumbai North Central. While Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg and Satara vote in phase three of the elections on May 7, Aurangabad goes to polls in the fourth phase on May 13. The rest will vote in the fifth phase on May 20.

Even as Chief Minister Eknath Shinde of the Shiv Sena and Deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP and Ajit Pawar of the NCP are putting up a united front, seat-sharing talks have progressed at a snail’s pace with the number of contentious seats coming down from 15 a fortnight ago tonine now.

Fadnavis admitted some differences over seat-sharing remain. “There are issues in three or four seats. We will discuss and resolve them,” he said. Ajit and Shinde have also expressed similar views. The ruling coalition has twice missed the deadline set by Ajit to release its full list of candidates. While the BJP has officially announced candidates for 24 seats so far, the Sena has announced 10. The NCP has announced four candidates. Parbhani will see Mahadev Jankar of the Rashtriya Samaj Party (RSP) in the fray as an NDA nominee.

The stalled talks also seem to have dealt a blow to the BJP’s ambitions of being the “big brother” in the alliance and contesting the lion’s share — at least, 32 — of the seats “The