Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav
Credit: PTI Photo
Mumbai: Amid rumblings in the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (I.N.D.I.A.) in Maharashtra over Samajwadi Party’s demands of a dozen seats, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav are expected to step in and resolve the crisis ahead of Vidhan Sabha polls.
SP’s Maharashtra unit President Abu Asim Azmi has threatened to contest independently if the Congress-MVA does not give 12 seats.
As of now, SP has two MLAs - Azmi from Mankhurd-Shivajinagar and Rain Shaikh from Bhiwandi East.
Among the dozen seats that SP is asking include Mankhurd Shivajinagar, Bhiwandi East, Bhiwandi West, Malegaon, Dhule, Anushaktinagar, Aurangabad East, Byculla, Versova
Azmi had stated that if any party of the MVA, be it Congress, Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) or Uddhav Thackeray-headed Shiv Sena (UBT) releases the their list of candidates list without discussing it with the SP then it would be considered that they do not consider it as a part of the alliance.
"We need 12 seats. After all we are running a political party,” said Azmi adding that the MVA leadership must take into account the smaller allies into confidence before taking decisions.
The development comes ahead of Yadav’s visit to Maharashtra - when he would address a couple of rallies in Malegaon in Nashik and Dhule district.
“I am going to Maharashtra on Friday…we want INDIA to win…we will contest with INDIA…yes, we have asked for some seats…we hope they will agree,” Yadav said in Lucknow.
In Mumbai, Leader of the Opposition in Legislative Assembly Vijay Wadettiwar of the Congress said that the seat-sharing process is underway and it may be finalised on Friday.
“The doors of MVA are always open for SP…our agreement with Samajwadi Party on seat sharing in Maharashtra will be similar to the agreement between Congress and SP in Uttar Pradesh,” he said, adding that there could be discussions between Gandhi and Yadav in this regard at their level.