Maharashtra Elections: Why did Rahul Gandhi get angry on seat distribution in Maharashtra, know the inside story

New Delhi: Assembly elections are to be held in Maharashtra on 20th November. All the parties are bringing out the lists of their respective candidates. Meanwhile, MP and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi is not happy with the list of candidates suggested by his/her party. Rahul feels that there has been partiality in this list of candidates. This has been revealed by quoting sources. So far, Mahavikas Aghadi has announced candidates for 48 of the 85 seats under the seat-sharing arrangement. Rahul Gandhi has also expressed displeasure over giving strong seats in Maharashtra to the Uddhav faction.Rahul feels that there is favoritism in seat distribution.
According to sources, Rahul Gandhi was disappointed with the screening committee’s selection of names submitted to the Congress Election Committee (CEC) and expressed concern over it in Friday’s meeting. Sources said he/she highlighted that the list of names of candidates given appeared to favor some Maharashtra Congress leaders.

he/she also questioned the allocation of some Congress strongholds in regions like Vidarbha and Mumbai to Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena under the seat-sharing agreement. The MVA has reached an agreement on 255 out of the total 288 assembly seats. In the upcoming elections, Uddhav Sena, Congress and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP-SP) will contest on 85 seats. All three parties have so far released one list of candidates each.

Trouble over seat distribution
Uddhav Sena, Congress and Sharad Pawar’s NCP have announced candidates for 65,48 and 45 seats respectively. However, the tussle over seat distribution is still going on in 18 out of 288 seats. Samajwadi Party leader and MLA Abu Asim Azmi on Friday jumped into the seat-sharing controversy and threatened to field candidates on 25 seats if the opposition alliance does not set aside five seats for his/her party’s candidates. Samajwadi Party is also a part of MVA. Voting for the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly will be held in a single phase on November 20 and the results will be declared on November 23.