Published 17:17 IST, September 16th 2019
Maharashtra Elections: CEC Arora to gauge the state's poll readiness
CEC Arora is going to interact with various stakeholders and take stock of the state's poll readiness for Maharashtra elections during his trip to Mumbai.
The Election Commission will visit Mumbai on Tuesday and interact with various stakeholders in the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections as part of its review of the state's poll preparedness, sources said on Monday.
Gauging 'poll readiness' on Agenda
Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora will reach Mumbai on Tuesday evening with Election Commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra and hold meetings with civil administration and police officials besides various parties' leaders there to take stock of the state's poll readiness. The meetings would be spread over two days between Tuesday and Wednesday. The poll panel will be back to Delhi on Wednesday evening.
The term of the 288-member Maharashtra assembly ends on November 9 and a new assembly has to be constituted before that. It was learnt that the Commission could announce assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana together in next few days.
The BJP is vying to retain power in the state and is in talks with the Shiv Sena over the seat-sharing arrangements, while the NCP and the Congress have decided to contest the polls together.
In 2014 elections, the Sena and the BJP had contested the assembly elections separately, as the seat-sharing talks between both the parties collapsed at the last moment. They later came together to form the government. The BJP had then won 122 seats while the Sena, 63.
BJP eyes for more seats, while Sena maintains 50:50
While the Sena is stressing on the 50:50 seat-sharing formula for the upcoming polls, the BJP is apparently eyeing more seats to accommodate leaders from other parties who have joined the party recently.
However, Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray, who is currently touring Konkan region as a part of his 'Jan Aashirwad Yatra', maintained that the Sena will go by the 50:50 formula announced by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis while declaring the alliance in February.
"The Shiv Sena never betrayed anyone. We will go by what the Chief Minister had said at the press conference. Beyond that, we will abide by whatever orders the party president give to us," he told reporters.
Alliance with BJP inevitable
Interestingly, Thackeray had said in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently that the alliance with the BJP was inevitable.
Congress-NCP alliance talks
The former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Tuesday said that the Congress and NCP will fight about 123-125 seats respectively and leave the remaining 41 seats to the constituencies for smaller allies in the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly polls. He also mentioned that based on the agreement between the two major opposition parties the seats may be swapped.
(With PTI inputs)
Updated 19:36 IST, September 16th 2019