Seat sharing among MahaYuti partners for Maha polls to be done soon: Fadnavis

Mumbai, Aug 12 (IANS) Deputy Maharashtra Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Monday asserted that the MahaYuti comprising BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP will benefit from "counter-polarisation" in the upcoming assembly election, adding the three partners are about to complete the seat-sharing process soon.  

"Seat allocation will be done quickly based on the seat-wise strength of the MahaYuti partners. This is Ajit Pawar's first election (after the split). Everyone has to ask for more seats. As the seat sharing process prolonged during the Lok Sabha elections, it affected the MahaYuti. Now, we are trying to get allotments of seats done quickly. The seat sharing for Maha Vikas Aghadi is more difficult than ours," he said.

After a dismal performance in the Lok Sabha election, Fadnavis said that MahaYuti had "fixed the things that people were worried about", and expressed confidence of winning the election. 

Fadnavis criticised the MVA, saying that opposition parties have leaders with 50 years of experience, and they know what the strength is of MahaYuti. 

"They know who should be targeted. I had criticised Uddhav Thackeray. At that time, Congress and Sharad Pawar's NCP targeted me more than Shiv Sena-UBT. They know that the BJP has more strength among the three parties," he said.

"Analysing the Lok Sabha, we have 12 seats where a different pattern is seen. It will not be seen in the Assembly election. Among the votes we had, Shiv Sena and NCP were expected to win certain seats. But there were new parties, their votes were not transferred to each other," Fadnavis said while commenting on MahaYuti's lacklustre performance in the general elections.

The BJP leader also said that "the fake narrative works (only) in one election". 

"NCP-SP chief Sharad Pawar will get a gold medal if there is a competition to split the parties," he taunted.

To a question about whether he would be the Chief Minister or go to Delhi (for a different assignment), the Deputy Maharashtra Chief Minister said: "In the Bharatiya Janata Party, no decision is in our hands. The party takes all decisions. I have already said that we will work in the position where the party has told us. Currently, I am in Maharashtra. I am going to work in Maharashtra, and becoming Chief Minister is not my agenda."