Will Amit Shah’s Maharashtra visit resolve coalition clash on conflicting seats?

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday embarked on a two-day visit to Maharashtra ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls. While the senior BJP leader’s visit is being seen as a bid to revive the party’s cadre after a dismal showing in recent Lok Sabha elections, he is also expected to iron out the differences in the Mahayuti coalition over conflicting seats.
On his first day, Amit Shah held a meeting with BJP workers in Nagpur, and ended his day in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar. On Wednesday, he will attend review meetings in Nashik and Kolhapur.
As per the schedule, Amit Shah has strategised his meetings to concentrate on Vidarbha, Marathwada, northern Maharashtra, and western Maharashtra, where the opposition alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has made inroads, challenging the BJP’s dominance.
Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said that Amit Shah will address nearly 1,500 to 1,700 party workers, including taluka presidents and prabharis (in-charges) of each division. The review will be conducted constituency-wise, which will help boost the morale of our party cadre, said Bawankule.
According to sources, Amit Shah’s review tour indicates that seat distribution in the Mahayuti alliance is at its final stage. However, there are 20 to 25 Assembly seats on which both the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party and the BJP have claims.
Most of these conflicting seats are from western Maharashtra and Marathwada, where they fought against each other in the 2019 polls.
NCP spokesperson Sanjay Tatkare said that most of the MLAs come from western Maharashtra and Marathwada. “Hence, we are keen to retain our seats. We will reach a consensus after a series of discussions among senior leaders in the presence of Amit Shah soon,” confirmed Tatkare.
If we look at the 2019 Assembly election, the BJP is targeting an increased vote percentage to have an upper hand both in the Mahayuti alliance and against the opposition MVA alliance.
Vidarbha
Total – 62 seats
BJP – 27 seats
Marathwada
Total – 46 seats
BJP – 16 seats
Northern Maharashtra
Total – 47 seats
BJP – 16 seats
Western Maharashtra
Total – 58 seats
BJP – 16 seats
Abhijit Brahmanathkar, a political analyst, said that Amit Shah’s tour signifies the party will get the major share in seat distribution, followed by Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, after an impressive strike rate in the Lok Sabha polls.
However, the tussle with the NCP over most of the seats will be addressed with robust strategies to avoid internal clashes in the party, he added.
Interestingly, Amit Shah has set his focus on the same divisions of the state to gauge the ground reality from the party cadre during his two-day tour. He also directed them to gain a minimum of 10 per cent votes in every booth to regain the party’s dominance, which will help the BJP bargain hard with their allies at the final seat distribution table.