VijayV.SinghMumbai: The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on Friday reached a consensus on seat-sharing for 15 of the 17 legislative council seats going to polls on June 18. The Congress is set to contest eight seats, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) four, and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) three seats.Senior MVA politicians, including state Congress president Harshvardhan Sapkal, NCP (SP)’s Supriya Sule and Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Anil Desai, took the decision at a joint meeting held at the Yashwantrao Chavan Centre in Mumbai.However, the MVA partners are yet to arrive at a consensus on the Nashik and Nanded seats, which have emerged as the main points of contention, with different parties staking claim to these. In Nanded, Congress has a stronger numerical presence than the others in the alliance, while in Nashik, Sena (UBT) is ahead.Though the numbers are not in favour of the alliance, the MVA is aiming to field influential candidates who could persuade local representatives from the governing alliance to vote for them.The MVA also accused the governing BJP-led Mahayuti of indulging in “horse-trading, misuse of power and money, and attempts to poach corporators” ahead of the elections. Sapkal has appointed senior party politicians as observers for the MLC polls.The six-year terms of 16 MLCs from local authority constituencies ended between 2022 and 2025, but the elections were delayed due to pending court cases and the postponement of local body polls in the state.A bypoll for the Nagpur local authority constituency was also announced after BJP’s Chandrashekhar Bawankule resigned before completion of his tenure following his election as an MLA in 2024.In the 78-member legislative council, 22 members are elected by corporators, councillors and elected representatives of local self-govt bodies.
