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By:

Abhijit Mulye

21 August 2024 at 11:29:11 am

Mahayuti struggles with seat-sharing formula

Mumbai: The ruling Mahayuti alliance is currently navigating a treacherous political minefield. With the crucial Legislative Council elections rapidly approaching, deep-seated differences over seat-sharing have surfaced. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday offered a candid admission of these unresolved disputes. His statements underscore the immense pressure on the coalition partners. The state is preparing to vote for sixteen council seats and one bypoll seat in Nagpur. Voting is...

Mahayuti struggles with seat-sharing formula

Mumbai: The ruling Mahayuti alliance is currently navigating a treacherous political minefield. With the crucial Legislative Council elections rapidly approaching, deep-seated differences over seat-sharing have surfaced. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday offered a candid admission of these unresolved disputes. His statements underscore the immense pressure on the coalition partners. The state is preparing to vote for sixteen council seats and one bypoll seat in Nagpur. Voting is scheduled for June 18, with the all-important counting set for June 22. Addressing the media after inaugurating the Jawahar Balbhavan in Mumbai, Fadnavis sought to project a calm exterior. He emphasised that detailed discussions are still ongoing to evaluate various aspects of the electoral battle. He expressed confidence that the alliance would soon reach an amicable solution. However, the specific geographies he mentioned reveal the exact fault lines. Negotiations with the Shiv Sena are heavily concentrated on Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar and Nashik. Meanwhile, talks with the Nationalist Congress Party are focused squarely on Pune. Alliance Arithmatic The arithmetic of the alliance is proving incredibly difficult to balance. The Shiv Sena had firmly demanded seven seats even as the BJP was offering only 3. They justify this claim by pointing to their strong support bases in Mumbai, Thane, Raigad, Sambhajinagar, Ratnagiri, Nashik, and Yavatmal. The Bharatiya Janata Party has a vastly different calculation. The BJP plans to assert its dominance by contesting twelve seats. This aggressive stance would leave only three seats for the Sena and a mere two seats for the Sunetra Pawar-led NCP. With the nomination process already underway, the clock is ticking loudly for the Mahayuti leadership. This intense internal friction prompted a sudden political maneuver by Deputy Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde. He flew to New Delhi over the weekend amid the escalating deadlock. Sena sources indicated that Shinde sought the intervention of the BJP’s central leadership. A Sena minister, however, quickly tried to downplay the optics of the trip. He insisted that Shinde travelled for an unscheduled programme before heading to Bengaluru for a planned event. Despite these official denials, the timing strongly suggests a high-stakes crisis intervention. Bitter Conflict The most bitter conflict within the alliance centers on the Thane local authorities constituency. Both the BJP and the Shinde-led Sena are fiercely staking their claims. A BJP legislator recently argued that political tickets should be distributed based strictly on numerical strength. He pointed out that the BJP commands 444 corporators in the region. In stark contrast, the Shinde-led Sena and the allied Jijau organisation possess a combined total of only 346 corporators. However, political reality in Maharashtra is rarely dictated by numbers alone. The Shinde faction views Thane as its emotional and traditional stronghold. Surrendering this territory to their alliance partner is considered politically unthinkable. This local dispute is already threatening to severely damage the broader coalition. A Sena Member of Parliament recently issued a stark warning regarding the upcoming Thane Zilla Parishad elections. He boldly asserted that Sena workers are fully prepared to fight alone and hoist their saffron flag, regardless of the alliance’s survival. The battle lines are extending further across the state map. The Sena is demanding the Jalgaon seat, which the BJP is equally determined to contest. Furthermore, reports suggest the Sena is preparing to unilaterally field a candidate in Raigad. This would further complicate the already delicate negotiations. Despite these mounting tensions, BJP minister Girish Mahajan has publicly maintained that the deadlock will be resolved shortly. A final decision now rests on an impending high-level meeting between Fadnavis, Shinde, and Sunetra Pawar. MVA Crisis Meanwhile, the political turbulence is not restricted to the Mahayuti alliance. The opposition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi is dealing with its own severe crisis in the Vidarbha region. The Chandrapur-Gadchiroli council seat has triggered frantic political poaching. As many as sixty corporators and Zilla Parishad members from the Congress party reportedly went missing recently. Congress leaders have directly accused BJP legislator Banti Bhangadiya of orchestrating this disappearance. They allege he has shifted the corporators to an undisclosed location to manipulate the voting outcome. The Congress has responded with an aggressive counter-narrative. Senior Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar made a startling claim that over one hundred BJP corporators are secretly in contact with him. While Wadettiwar strategically hid their exact whereabouts, his statement highlighted a critical vulnerability. He suggested that the BJP is also suffering from severe internal factionalism. Wadettiwar warned that these hidden rifts will ultimately cost the ruling party dearly in the forthcoming elections.

Sanjay Raut alleges attempt to bribe Maharashtra legislature panel, CM orders SIT probe

  • PTI
  • May 22, 2025
  • 2 min read


Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut has alleged that his party's workers foiled an attempt to `bribe' the state legislature's Estimates Committee during their visit to Dhule district, prompting Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to order probe by a special team.


Committee chairman Arjun Khotkar rubbished allegations linking the episode to his personal assistant (PA). Khotkar is an MLA of the Shiv Sena led by deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.



In a post on X on Wednesday night, Raut alleged that more than Rs 5 crore in cash was found in a room at the government rest house in Dhule city.


¿When the legislature estimates committee visited Dhule district today (Wednesday), about five and a half crore rupees were kept in room number 102 at the Dhule government rest house Gulmohar for giving bribe to the committee,¿ the Rajya Sabha member claimed.


Former Shiv Sena MLA Anil Anna Gote and local Sena (UBT) leaders locked the room and stood guard outside, Raut said.



¿Despite informing the district collector, superintendent of police and Anti-Corruption Bureau, no one has come even after four to five hours....There is no cooperation from the administration. The bribe was meant to suppress corruption in development works and officials' involvement in it,¿ he alleged.


The estimates committee is empowered to scrutinise the utilisation of funds allocated to a particular area in the state budget.



Dhule superintendent of police Shrikant Dhivare told reporters that the matter was being probed.


Talking to reporters, Anil Gote claimed that Room 102 was booked in the name of Khotkar's PA Kishore Patil.


Khotkar, however, denied this, and said the money found in the rest house had nothing to do with the committee. ¿I spoke to my PA. He said he hadn't booked that room. He had booked the one next to it,¿ he said.


Raut subsequently told reporters that the person in whose name room 102 was booked should be probed.


Talking to reporters in Mumbai, chief minister Fadnavis said it was a serious incident. "The whole truth is not known. But the truth must come out. A question mark on a legislature committee cannot be tolerated . The respect and dignity of the legislature has to be upheld. An SIT (special investigation team) will be formed to ascertain the truth. Probe will be conducted into the money trail and whether anyone had asked for it," he said.


Fadnavis, who holds the home portfolio, also said he will request the assembly speaker and council chairperson to set up a separate ethics committees to ascertain the truth.


"Under no circumstances functioning of a legislature committee should come under a cloud," he said.

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