Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday chaired the Central Election Committee (CEC) to finalise the candidates for Maharashtra, in which 63 seats were discussed and next meeting to take place on October 25 in the national capital.
The Congress will also hold a meeting with the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners in Mumbai on Tuesday to finaluse the seat sharing formula as several seats still remains to be finalised for the crucial Maharashtra assembly polls.
The CEC meeting for Maharashtra at the party headquarters was chaired by Kharge and also attended by CPP chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, party General Secretary organisation KC Venugopal, Madhusudan Mistry, Ambika Soni, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Maharashtra incharge Ramesh Chenithala, state unit chief Nana Patole, Balasaheb Thorat and others.
According to party sources, during the meeting out of 96 seats screened, 63 seats were discussed. The source said that there was a consensus on at least 51 seats during the meeting.
The source said that the party will release the first list of candidates for Maharashtra on October 23.
Speaking to the media after the meeting, Thorat said, “Out of 96 seats screened, 63 seats were discussed during the CEC.”
He said that the MVA meeting scheduled in Mumbai on Tuesday is a “crucial meeting” as it will help in finalizing most of the issues in the state for the seat sharing formula.
Even Chenithala said that 63 seats were discussed today in the CEC today and next CWC to discuss the rest of candidates will take place on October 25.
He also said that MVA meeting will take place on Tuesday at 3 p.m. to finalise the seat sharing deal.
The Congress is likely to field 110 candidates in Maharashtra, while the rest of the swats it will give to Shiv Sena (UBT), Sharad Pawar led NCP and other parties.
Earlier, ahead of the CEC meeting, Kharge and Rahul Gandhi separately held a detailed discussion for over 20 minutes, sources said.
In Maharashtra, the Congress is facing a hard bargaining from the Shiv Sena (UBT) on several seats in Mumbai as well as in Vidarbha region.
The source said that out of 36 Mumbai seats, Congress wants to contest on 18 whereas the Shiv Sena is keen on giving 13 seats. The seats of Ghatkopar, Varsova, Byculla and Dharavi are said to be bone of contention in Mumbai between the two parties.
Similarly, in nine seats of Vidarbha, whixh is considered a strong Congress bastion, Shiv Sena wants to contest on six seats. Whereas the Congress wants rhe Shiv Sena to focus on its strong belt of Marathwada, Konkan and other regions.
The Maharashtra will go to polls on November 20 in single phase whereas counting of votes will takemplace on November 23.
The MVA is eyeing to make a comeback in the state. The MVA did fairly well in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls. The Congress had won 13 seats while the Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP-SP had won 9 seats each out of the 48 seats in the state.