Mumbai
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar on May 23 said the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi — a coalition of the Congress, NCP and the Shiv Sena (UBT) — would engage in discussions regarding 25 out of Maharashtra’s 48 Lok Sabha seats, considering the Uddhav-led Sena had secured 18 seats in the 2019 elections.
He said the final decision on seat sharing would be made by senior leaders of the MVA, assuring that the alliance would remain strong and united.
“First we must discuss 25 seats out of 48 seats, later the rest 23 can be discussed. However, the final decision on seat sharing will be made by senior leaders of the MVA,” the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly said. He said the alliance was strong and he could give it in “writing on stamp paper.”
In the last Lok Sabha elections, the BJP and Shiv Sena fought jointly, with the BJP winning 23 seats, and the Sena securing 18 seats.
Commenting on the Enforcement Directorate questioning their party’s Maharashtra president Jayant Patil, Mr. Pawar said the investigating agencies had the right to conduct investigations, and he had not made any statements against anyone. On Monday, Mr. Patil was questioned by the Central agency in connection with a money laundering case related to now-bankrupt financial services firm, Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited.
Further, the NCP leader criticised the NDA government’s decision to withdraw the circulation of ₹2,000 currency notes. “The middle class don’t possess a significant amount of these notes, so if they wanted to act on black money, the government could have acted more promptly,” Mr. Pawar added.
