Rahul Gandhi meets Sharad Pawar, discusses seat-sharing in Maharashtra for 2024 Lok Sabha polls

Lok Sabha 2024: Days after I.N.D.I.A. bloc’s fourth meeting in Delhi, Rahul Gandhi on Friday met Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar and discussed seat-sharing, among other issues ahead of the next year’s Lok Sabha elections.

Seat-sharing also topped the agenda in Tuesday’s meeting when most of the alliance partners expressed that this issue should be resolved at the earliest.

After the joint opposition protests at Jantar Mantar over the suspension of MPs in the recently concluded Winter Session of the Parliament, Rahul Gandhi drove with Pawar to the latter’s 6, Janpath residence.

The two leaders were closeted for some time and learnt to have discussed seat sharing among the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi partners Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and NCP for the Lok Sabha elections.

Pawar is keen on accommodating smaller parties such as from the Left, Peasants and Workers Party and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi in the opposition alliance as they have certain pockets of strength in the state.

The NCP veteran is also keen on finalising the seat sharing in Maharashtra early so that joint rallies of the coalition could be organised for campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections.

Rahul Gandhi’s meeting with Sharad Pawar has come after he called Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who was reportedly unhappy with the I.N.D.I.A. bloc after Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal projected Mallikarjun Kharge’s name for CM face. 

With inputs from PTI

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