Maharashtra may emerge as the first State in the country where the constituents of ‘Mahagathbandhan’ will form a grand Opposition alliance to take on the BJP in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The leaders of the Opposition Congress and NCP, which are the two main parties, said on Monday that they had arrived at a broad consensus on the sharing of seats for the Lok Sabha polls.
“We (NCP, Congress and other allies) have held discussions on seat sharing. The alliance is being firmed up,” NCP president Sharad Pawar said.
Maharashtra’s Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said that the talks over the formation of a grand Opposition alliance were in final stages. "We are working on it (the formation of an alliance). We have had several meetings. We would be having a few more meetings in the coming days. We expect to formalise the alliance soon," he said.
Apart from the Congress and NCP, the other constituents include include Peasants and Workers’ Party and Hitendra Thakur-led Bahujan Vikas Aghadi.
Chavan also said that the talks were also on with Prakash Ambedkar-led Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh (BBM) "We want that they should be with us," he said.
What is coming in the way of the BBM agreeing to be a part of the grand Opposition front is its alliance with Asauddin Owaisi led All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM). The two parties had contested the Telangana Assembly elections in alliance with the K Chandrasekhar Rao-led TRS. Rao has been rooting for forming a non-Congress, non-BJP front for the Lok Sabha polls.