After holding meetings with Bihar allies JD(U) and RJD and with Aam Admi Party (AAP) for seats in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, and Goa over the matter of seat sharing during the upcoming parliament elections, the Congress leaders are now all set to meet their Maharashtra allies in Delhi today.
The meeting was scheduled after the former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray-led faction of Shiv Sena declared that they would contest 23 seats in Maharashtra. The Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena, which lost its tag of being the "original" one, is a part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) along with Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress.
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The Congress and other regional parties, including AAP, Trinamool, and DMK last year joined hands to establish te joint Opposition front, Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), with an aim to put up a united fight against the ruling BJP in this year's parliament elections. But seat-sharing remains a big challenge as they try to accommodate each other in common electoral spaces.
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Seat-sharing talks so far
Earlier, in the case of Bihar, it was indicated that out of the state’s 40 Lok Sabha seats, 17 each are likely to be allotted to the JD(U) and the RJD. The Congress is likely to get five seats and the Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) Liberation may get one seat to contest the general elections.
Congress' first meeting with AAP reportedly concluded at a place where AAP proposed offering three Lok Sabha seats to the Congress in Delhi. Expecting a reciprocation of equal measure, AAP has sought 1 Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat, 3 in Haryana, and 1 in Goa, which has prompted the two parties of the INDIA bloc to meet again to give a final shape to the arrangement.
It has also been reported that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which also rules Punjab, has expressed a willingness to allocate 6 seats to the Congress in the border state.
