The seat-sharing talks between the allies of the Maha Vikas Aghadi on Thursday remained logjammed on the allocation of 28 seats. Though MVA sources claim its alliance partners have reached a consensus on 260 seats. Another round of talks will take place to resolve the impasse.

The seats where the MVA partners could not come to a conclusion include Ramtek, Chandrapur, Tumsar, Daryapur, Arjuni-Morgaon (all from Vidarbha), Sindkheda (north Maharashtra), and Parli, Gevrai, and Udgir (all from Marathwada).

The discussion over 4 or 5 seats in Mumbai could not take place due to the absence of leaders from the city, sources said. In total, the MVA discussion went on for over nine hours at a five-star hotel in the BandraKurla Complex.

Those participating included MPCC chief Nana Patole, his colleagues from the party Balasaheb Thorat, Vijav Wadettiwar, and Satej Patl, NCP SP state chief Jayant Patil and his colleagues Anil Deshmukh, Jitendra Awhad, and Rajesh Tope and Shiv Sena MPs Sanjay Raut and Anil Desai.

Deliberations could not be concluded due to differences between Congress and Shiv Sena leaders, sources said. Now, for seats where consensus has not been reached, discussions will be held with Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray and NCP leader Sharad Pawar to find a solution.

There was no discussion about any seats in Mumbai during this meeting because the committee responsible for discussing Mumbai was not present. Speaking to the media, former minister and NCP (SP) leader Anil Deshmukh mentioned that “discussions are still pending on 10 percent of the seats.

There will be another meeting today to finalise the seat distribution.” There was also discontent on the part of Abu Azmi, but reportedly, this was quieted by allocating him the Govandi and Bhiwandi seats. The Congress wants to contest 110-120 seats while the Shiv Sena (UBT) is aiming for 90-100, and NCP (SP) is looking at 80 seats. It was expected that the MVAS first candidate list would be announced on October 18.

However, Congress state president Nana Patole stated that complete seat distribution would be finalised by October 18-19. This means that the Maha Vikas Aghadi will definitely miss the October 18 deadline for releasing the first list. The main disagreements are on Mumbai and Vidarbha, which together account for 98 of the total 288 seats.

Both the Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) have strong interests in these regions and are reluctant to compromise. In Mumbuai, the fight over key seats is not just about local politics but also reflects the changing dynamics after the Congress’s unexpected loss to the BJP in Haryana’s recent elections.

The deadlock is over eight crucial seats in Mumbai, including Byculla, Versova, Dharavi, Jogeshwari rast, and others. Joint press conference: “We have addressed problems such as faults and missing names from the voter list. We will take up these issues before the Election Commission at llam am on Friday. Later, we will address a joint press around 12pm.”

Western Railway has decided to run a weekly superfast train between Bandra Terminus and Lalkuan stations for the convenience of passengers and to reduce the extra crowd.

According to the press release issued by Shri Vineet Abhishek, Chief Public Relations Officer, Western Railway, the details of this train are as follows:

· Train No. 22543/22544 Bandra Terminus – Lalkuan Superfast Express (Weekly):

Train No. 22543 Bandra Terminus-Lalkuan Superfast Express will depart from Bandra Terminus every Tuesday at 11.00 am and reach Lalkuan at 13.15 pm the next day. This train will run from October 22, 2024. Similarly, Train No. 22544 Lalkuan-Bandra Terminus Superfast Express will depart from Lalkuan every Monday at 07.45 am and reach Bandra Terminus at 08.30 am the next day. This train will run from October 21, 2024.

This train will stop at Borivali, Vapi, Surat, Vadodara, Ratlam, Kota, Sawai Madhopur, Bharatpur, Mathura, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Amroha, Moradabad, Rampur and Rudrapur City stations in both directions.

This train has AC 2-Tier, AC 3-Tier, AC 3-Tier (Economy), Sleeper Class and Second Class General coaches.

Booking of train number 22543 will start from October 18, 2024 at all PRS counters and IRCTC website. For detailed information regarding stoppage time and composition of trains, passengers can please visit www.enquiry.indianrail.gov.in

Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar challenged the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray for a debate and said the later is the spokesperson for the urban naxals. “Aaditya Thackeray and Congress MP Varsha Gaikwad have spread misconceptions, lies and fake narratives on the Dharavi Redevelopment Project. Aaditya lacks knowledge of the tender. He is a puppet of urban naxals,” Shelar said in the press conference in Mumbai on Thursday.

Speaking over the Dharavi’s redevelopment project, Shelar said that the project is a necessity and is a priority project, adding that Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and Congress leader Varsha Gaikwad are peddling lies in the name of Adani.

Aaditya is the MLA from Worli constituency and Varsha Gaikwad, the Mumbai Congress chief is elected as the MP from Mumbai North Central constituency. She is the former MLA from Dharavi constituency.

Shelar, the MLA from Bandra questioned Thackeray and Gaikwad that when 70 per cent of the homes in Dharavi Redevelopment Project will go to Marathi people, Muslims and Dalits, then why are they putting roadblocks in the project by creating false narrative?

Giving update on the Dharavi redevelopment project, Shelar said that currently the government survey is underay to determine eligible of the residents. So far only around 20,000 structures have been surveyed. “How can Aaditya Thackeray claim 7 lakh people will be sent out of Dharavi when survey is yet to be completed?”

Around 430 acres of land is available on which there will be infrastructure development, open spaces, gardens etc. Hence more space is being taken up to give everyone a home. So why is Aaditya opposing it?

“Aaditya Thackeray claims that 1,800 acres of land has been given to Adani. I challenge him to show one document that proves it and I will quit politics. If not, he should retire from politics,” Shelar said.