The ruling Mahayuti alliance parties, the BJP, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Sunnetra Ajit Pawar-led NCP, announced their seat-sharing formula for 17 legislative council (Vidhan Parishad) seats here on Monday.
According to the formula, the BJP will contest 11 seats, the Shinde-led Sena will contest 4 seats, and the Sunetra Ajit Pawar-led NCP will contest 2 seats.
The 17 seats will be elected by members of local bodies across 26 districts on June 18. The ruling Mahayuti, which won over 65 per cent of the seats in urban and rural local body elections between December 2025 and February this year, enjoys a dominant position in the council elections as well.
However, sources said that the Mahayuti’s consensus formula came after a tug of war over contentious seats for more than two weeks.
According to the sources, the Sunetra Ajit Pawar-led NCP was firm about contesting from 2 seats, while Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde had demanded 7 seats, which was resented by the BJP.
The tussle eventually reached Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Shinde met Shah separately and also jointly with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to discuss the issue, sources said.
As per the ruling Mahayuti’s consensus seat sharing formula, the Shinde-led Sena will contest from Nashik, Parbhani-Hingoli, Yavatmal as well as its stronghold and home turf of Thane, while the Sunetra Ajit Pawar-led NCP will contest the Konkan and Pune seats. The BJP will contest the remaining 11 seats, namely Solapur, Jalgaon, Bhandara-Gondia, Wardha-Chandrapur-Gadchiroli, Osmanabad-Latur-Beed, Nagpur, Aurangabad-Jalna, Ahmednagar, Sangli-Satara, Nanded and Amravati.
Earlier, the Shinde-led Shiv Sena was adamant that it would contest from both Nashik and Aurangabad, but the BJP made it clear to Shinde that the Sena would have to settle for either of the two.
“Fadnavis was firm on contesting the maximum number of seats, because our party can win 16 of the 17 seats without any support from any ally. He was not willing to settle for anything lower than 12 seats, but Amit Shah’s intervention helped Shinde secure one additional seat,” a BJP leader said.
The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) already announced their seat-sharing formula for the 15 out of 17 Maharashtra Legislative Council elections on Friday, with the Congress set to contest the highest number of 8 seats. The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena has claimed the remaining two seats of Nasik and Nanded.
Maharashtra Congress chief Harshwardhan Sapkal said that the MVA, which includes the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and the Sharad PAwar-led NCP reached a consensus on 15 seats, while talks are ongoing for the remaining two.
The Congress will contest from Chandrapur, Yavatmal, Bhandara, Amravati, Ahilyanagar, Solapur, Dharashiv, and Nagpur (byelection), while the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena will contest four seats: Raigad, Jalgaon, Parbhani-Hingoli and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, while it has also staked its claim to Nanded and Nashik.
The Sharad Pawar-led NCP will contest Pune, Thane and Sangli-Satara, as per the MVA’s seat sharing formula.