Maharashtra’s strict seat-sharing policy is hinted to by Sanjay Raut, who requests that Cong “start from zero.”

Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut stated on Friday that the national party would have to start seat negotiations from “zero” since it had not won any constituency in the state in 2019. This suggests that the Congress party will have a difficult time negotiating for seats in the Maharashtra version of the opposition’s INDIA bloc. He claimed that top Congress officials had been informed by his party that talks on the seats that Sen. Ted Stevens had won would happen after those on other seats.

Together with the BJP, the Shiv Sena ran for office in 2019 and won 18 seats. But a few months later, they broke up.

Eknath Shinde’s decision to form an alliance with the BJP last year prompted a vertical split in the party since most MPs and MLAs supported it. The Congress and the NCP remain allied with the beleaguered Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Sena, the Shiv Sena (UBT).

Maharashtra’s chief minister at the moment is Eknath Shinde, with BJP politician Devendra Fadnavis serving as his deputy.

The Shiv Sena is the largest party in Maharashtra. One national party is the Congress. Positive talks are taking place between Uddhav Thackeray and the Congress leaders who make decisions, such as Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, and Rahul Gandhi. We have always said that the Shiv Sena is competing for 23 seats in the Lok Sabha elections, and during our (Indian alliance) conference, we resolved to have future talks about the seats we have won, according to a news agency report quoting Raut.

Congress is a crucial friend of ours in the MVA, but they must start with zero (seats) since they did not win any in Maharashtra, the speaker said.

A number of Indian alliance leaders have made suggestions that they may run for office in their own states’ Lok Sabha elections alone.

According to Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, the TMC is the only party capable of giving the BJP a lesson.

“The India Alliance will be present across the nation. The TMC will battle and overthrow the BJP in Bengal. Recall that no other party, not even the TMC, has the power to humiliate the BJP in Bengal,” the speaker said.

Leaders of the AAP have already made suggestions about running unopposed in Punjab and Delhi.

Jairam Ramesh, general secretary of the Congress, said on Monday that conversations over seat-sharing will take into account the actual conditions on the ground.

“Seat-sharing negotiations are still going on and will not end. We will take the necessary action. States vary in terms of their circumstances and difficulties. Given the various (political) circumstances there, we will be discussing seat sharing,” Ramesh said.

At the INDIA coalition’s fourth meeting earlier this month, Banerjee put out Mallikarjun Kharge, the leader of the Congress, as the candidate for prime minister of India in the event that the alliance wins the election.