Maratha quota row, seat-sharing divisions: For BJP, why Marathwada is a tricky terrain

Manoj Jarange-Patil, a possible drought, and allies pushing for more seats. Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, these factors are seemingly not making it easy for the BJP in Marathwada, a region that the party swept in the 2019 polls in alliance with the undivided Shiv Sena.

Former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, the latest big name in the state to join the BJP, is part of the party’s strategy to make further inroads in the region. The former CM, who recently switched from the Congress and was elected to the Rajya Sabha, has reportedly been tasked with aggressively attacking his former party in Nanded and Hingoli.

The Marathwada region has eight Lok Sabha seats and 48 Assembly segments under them. With four sitting MPs, the BJP feels it has more bargaining chips than its allies Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, which has two MPs, and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) that has no MPs from the region but is eyeing Parbhani. The other two seats are held by the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and the AIMIM.

The BJP currently holds Beed, Jalna, Nanded and Latur while the Sena has MPs in Parbhani and Hingoli. The Sena MP of Dharashiv sided with Uddhav when the party split in July 2022.

The BJP’s assertion in Marathwada also stems from its strong base in the Assembly segments of the region. In 2019, the BJP won 18 Assembly seats while the undivided Shiv Sena won 12. The Congress and the NCP, which fought the polls in alliance, won seven and 14 seats, respectively.

The Parbhani Lok Sabha seat is likely to become the bone of contention in seat-sharing between the ruling “Mahayuti” alliance’s constituents as all three parties have reportedly staked a claim on it. The Sena is reportedly also keen on