MVA to finalise Maha Lok Sabha candidates by weekend

Mumbai, March 21 (IANS) Indicating an internal tussle, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is expected to announce the list of its Maharashtra Lok Sabha candidates by the weekend, Congress state President Nana Patole said here on Thursday.  

He said that the discussions on seat-allocation and candidates are almost completed among the allies – Congress, Nationalist Congress Party-SP, Shiv Sena-UBT, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), Samajwadi Party, CPI-M and others.

"After discussing the final nitty-gritties, the MVA will declare its list of candidates and the 48 LS constituencies in the next two-three days," Patole told the mediapersons, in the presence of senior leaders like M. Arif Naseem Khan, Dr. Nitin Raut, Nana Gavande and Bharat Singh.

In the MVA meeting on Thursday, top leaders like Sharad Pawar, Patole, Jayant Patil, Balasaheb Thorat, Sanjay Raut discussed the seat distribution, exchange of certain constituencies among the allies, plans for individual as well as joint campaign meetings and related issues pertaining to the Parliamentary elections.

To a pointed query whether he would contest the Lok Sabha polls, Patole said that as a loyal soldier of the Congress, he will abide by the decisions of the party high command as he had done in 2019.

Besides Patole, several other names of probable candidates from the MVA allies are doing the rounds in political circles, but party sources did not confirm or deny them, saying "wait till the weekend", though the Kolhapur constituency is considered as finalised for Chhatrapati Shrimant Shahu Maharaj.

--IANS

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