Updated On: 21 March, 2024 07:08 AM IST | Mumbai | Dharmendra Jore
Shiv Sena (UBT) unwilling to budge, wants to give Congress Mumbai North-East seat instead

MVA leaders (from left) Uddhav Thackeray, Rahul Gandhi and Sharad Pawar at the Bharat Jodo Nya Yatra, on Sunday. Pics/Rane Ashish
With the Shiv Sena (UBT) all set to get four out of six Lok Sabha seats in Mumbai, the Congress aspirants in Mumbai are pushing hard against the ally’s demand to get the two safer seats—Mumbai South-Central and Mumbai North-Central. Earlier, the Congress would contest five seats and the undivided Nationalist Congress Party one, when the two were in pre-poll alliance.
The Congress has prospective candidates for the two constituencies, but the Sena is unwilling to part with Mumbai South-Central, and instead wants to give the Congress Mumbai North-East, said a Congress leader. The leader said the party’s Central Election Committee had met in Delhi on Wednesday, but he was not sure whether the names and constituencies for Maharashtra were decided. The undivided Sena and BJP had won three seats each in 2019. The equations have changed with the Sena-UBT becoming the third partner, and a dominant one. NCP-Sharad Pawar, which had won Mumbai North-East in alliance with the Congress, has given up its stake.