NCP demands 90 seats for Maha polls; Fadnavis says...

Maharashtra minister and senior Nationalist Congress Party leader Chhagan Bhujbal on Monday demanded that his party be given 80-90 seats to contest in the assembly elections due this year.

The BJP is the largest party and will contest in more seats, said Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Speaking at a party's meeting in Mumbai, Bhujbal said, “When we joined the alliance (BJP-Shiv Sena), we were assured of getting 80 to 90 seats to contest in the assembly elections. However, for this Lok Sabha polls, we got very few seats to contest. We must tell them (BJP) that we want more seats to contest so that we could win around 50 to 60 seats,” he said.

Of the 288 seats in the state, BJP had won 105 in 2019 state polls, while the undivided NCP had bagged 54 seats.

“If we get 50 seats to contest because of the current number of MLAs with the party, how many will actually get elected out of those 50,” he wondered.

He also expressed displeasure over reports that Manusmriti, an ancient Hindu text, will likely be taught in schools.

“We spent a lot of energy convincing Dalits that the BJP's call for winning more than 400 Lok Sabha seats doesn't mean the party will change the Constitution to remove reservation benefits. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi refuted those claims by the opposition. Now, there are reports of Manusmriti likely to be introduced in schools,” said Bhujbal, a prominent OBC leader.

About Bhujbal's comments, Fadnavis said BJP is the largest party and will contest more seats in this election.

“However, the seat-sharing formula will be finalised only after leaders of the three parties meet and discuss,” he added.