Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday indicated that Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance could opt for ‘friendly fights’ in the MLC elections scheduled for Oct 23 if the constituent parties fail to reach a consensus on seat-sharing.“We held a meeting with NCP (SP)’s Shashikant Shinde four days ago regarding MLC elections. We also met with Congress’s Harshvardhan Sapkal and Naseem Khan. Our stance is to contest together as MVA, but our allies have different calculations. Each party believes it has secured a significant number of voter registrations,” said Raut.“Congress has already announced its candidates for constituencies in Nagpur, Amravati, and Pune. We too intend to contest the Amravati and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Graduate constituencies. We will announce our candidates within two days,” he said. “We are holding a meeting; if a decision is reached, fine, otherwise, we will definitely contest. We have a party to run too.”Last week, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had approved three candidates for the upcoming biennial elections for five MLC seats from Graduates’ and Teachers’ constituencies. Abhijit Wanjarri has been renominated from Nagpur, Jayant Dinkar Asagaonkar from Pune, and Aditi Rishikesh Pohare from Amravati.“Congress holds the seat for Nagpur Graduate constituency, and we have no objection to that. They also hold the incumbent seat in Pune, to which also we have no objection. Even though our candidate has done the most groundwork for Pune Graduate constituency, we have adopted a stance of coordination. Our prospective candidate, Sunil Modi, has facilitated the registration of 53,000 voters; yet, we are willing to concede this seat to Congress,” Raut said.“Satish Chavan from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar has moved from Congress to NCP; consequently, no single party has an exclusive claim to this seat. That is why we intend to contest this seat. We will also contest the Amravati seat.”“These elections are unique — often involving five-way or multi-cornered contests. Every party believes it has achieved significant voter registration, which is why these elections are often fought independently,” Raut said.
