After AICC General Secretary Ramesh Chennithala met Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray amid reports of stalled seat-sharing talks, three constituents of the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) resumed negotiations on Saturday afternoon with a resolve to finalise the seat tie-up among them for the November 20 Maharashtra Assembly polls by Monday.

Ahead of the start of nominations for the State Assembly on Tuesday (October 22), the MVA constituents -- Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharad Pawar) -- are expected to make a formal announcement about their seat-sharing arrangement among them on Monday.

A day after Uddhav cautioned the MVA constituents that “the differences should be stretched to breaking point”, the Congress high command rushed  Chennithala to meet the Sena (UBT) chief to sort out issues between the two parties over the sharing of seats in Vidarbha regions.  Chennithala met Uddhav on Saturday morning, following which the stalled talks among the MVA constituents resumed at 3 pm.

The meeting between Uddhav and Chennithala should be seen in the backdrop of  a statement by  Sena (UBT) spokesperson who had openly accused State Congress chief Nana Patole of adopting an “adamant approach” in the seat-sharing negotiations in matters relating to the seats from Vidarbha. However, Patole had said that he was merely following party protocols in consultation with his party leaders based in New Delhi.

Informed sources in the MVA said that the three major constituents – Congress, Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharad Pawar) had reached a consensus on 265 out of the total 288 Assembly seats in the state.  A majority of the remaining undecided 23 seats are from Vidarbha. From these seats, the Sena (UBT) has staked a claim 0n 12 seats including Ramtek, Kamthi, Nagpur (south), Warora, Armori, Bhandara, Sindhkhed Raja, Aarni, Wardha, Yavatmal and Digraj. On its part, the Congress – which it considers as its bastion – is reluctant to give that many seats to the Sena (UBT).

However, during the final round of seat-sharing negotiations – in which State Congress president Nana Patole, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut and NCP (Sharad Pawar) state president Jayant Patil are taking part – were expected to adopt “give-and-take” approach to sort out the differences over the under-decided seats either on Saturday night or on Sunday.

“Though the three parties will arrive at the seat-tie during the next 24 hours, we will make a formal announcement about the seat-sharing arrangement on Monday ahead of the start of the nomination process on Tuesday,” a senior MVA leader said.

According to the MVA sources, the major MVA constituents will give out seats to smaller parties like the Samajwadi Party (SP), CPI, CPI-M and Peasants and Workers’ Party (PWP) from their respective seat quotas.

For instance, the Samajwadi Party was earlier insisting on 12 seats and now it has scaled down its demand to 6 seats. The Congress is dealing with the Samajwadi Party on the sharing of seats for the State Assembly polls.

Earlier on Friday, Patole of the Congress and Sanjay Raut had exchanged words between them. A miffed Raut had said that Patole’s “adamant attitude” was coming in the way of the MVA formalising the  seat-sharing talks and said that the Sena (UBT) would not take part in the seat-sharing talks if the State Congress chief takes part in the talks.

On his part, Patole said that if someone talks about the Congress leaders, it was natural that he would respond to the statements. He had admitted that a certain procedure was adopted in the seat-sharing by his party in consultation with his party high command.

However, the stalemate between the Congress and Sena (UBT) over the sharing of seats in Vidarbha region ended. Both Patole and Raut participated in the final round of resumed talks on Saturday afternoon.