Amid seat-sharing talks, Sena (UBT) stakes claim to 23 Lok Sabha seats

'At tomorrow's meeting in Delhi, we will place our demand for 23 seats,' Sanjay Raut, chief spokesperson of the Shiv Sena (UBT)

Even as the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders prepare to meet in New Delhi on Tuesday to discuss seat-sharing in Maharashtra for the Lok Sabha election, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena has gotten an early start by giving the go-ahead to its probable candidates in 23 seats which it intends to contest.

" We have staked claim to 23 Lok Sabha seats. We have candidates for all 23 seats and given them the go-ahead," Sanjay Raut, chief spokesperson of the Shiv Sena (UBT) was quoted as saying byThe Indian Express.

"At tomorrow's meeting in Delhi, we will place our demand for 23 seats," said the minister.

When it was in alliance with the BJP in 2019, Shiv Sena (UBT) contested 23 seats and won 18, while the BJP contested 26. However, in the 2022 revolt, 12 of its sitting MPs joined forces with the Shiv Sena, which current Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde leads.

Raut stated that the Sena is likely to field five of its sitting MPs. They include Arvind Swant (Mumbai South), Vinayak Raut (Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg), Omraje Nimbalkar (Osmanabad), Sanjay Jadhav (Parbhani), and Rajan Vichare (Thane).

Gajajan Kirtikar, a Mumbai North-West MP, was the Shinde Sena's 13th defector. The Thackeray Sena is expected to field Amol Kirtikar, son of Gajanan Kirtikar, from Mumbai's North West. "We have asked him to gear up for the polls," Raut told Indian Express.

Sena (UBT) claims to have given the go-ahead to all probable candidates, but it is having problems finding replacements. It is now testing the waters and has not publicly disclosed its list of probable candidates.