Sharad Pawar arrives at Uddhav Thackeray’s residence to attend Maha Vikas Aghadi meeting

Sharad Pawar

MUMBAI: NCP (SCP) president Sharad Pawar visited the residence of Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Monday to attend a meeting of the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance.

According to sources, at the meeting that is being held at ‘Matoshree’, discussion on seat sharing for the Lok Sabha polls can take place.

There are 48 Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra. The elections will be held in five phases. 5 seats in Phase 1 (April 19), 8 seats in Phase 2 (April 26), and 11 seats each in Phase 3 (May 7) and 4 (May 13). The remaining 13 seats will go to the polls in Phase 5 (May 20).

Amid the swiftly changing allegiances among political leaders in Maharashtra, Bajrang Sonawane, previously aligned with Ajit Pawar’s faction within the NCP, made a significant move by joining Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Wednesday.

Bajrang Sonwane, who hails from Beed district, Maharashtra, is considered to be the loyalist of Ajit Pawar and Dhananjay Munde after the split in the NCP last year. When Ajit Pawar joined the Eknath Shinde-led Grand Alliance government, Bajarang Sonwane came along with Ajit Pawar while he was the president of the NCP from Beed district.

Bajrang Sonawane had also contested against Pritam Munde in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the Beed seat and had given a strong fight in the election.

The BJP has already announced the candidature of Pankaja Munde for the Beed Lok Sabha seat, replacing her younger sister, MP Pritam Munde, who won the seat in 2019. (ANI)