Parties struggle with seat-sharing as Maharashtra Assembly elections near

And this much is clear: That in the upcoming Assembly election, negotiations over seat-sharing will be as important as actual outreach to voters

The background is the upheaval that followed the 2019 Assembly elections: the Shiv Sena, under Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership, fought in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but walked out of it weeks later to join the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress grouping that calls itself the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA).

More fractures followed as both the Shiv Sena and the NCP split with factions led by Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar joining the BJP-led Mahayuti. Many old friends now became bitter foes and the erstwhile allies turned rivals.

There was some reflection of this