The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has reiterated its demand to contest 12 seats in the upcoming Maharashtra assembly polls. The party’s state secretary, Dr. Uday Narkar, stated that the CPI(M) is requesting these 12 seats from the Maha Vikas Aghadi, where the party has a strong base. The list of these seats was provided to the senior leaders of the MVA two months ago.

The CPI(M) has insisted that the MVA, comprising the Congress, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), should allocate these 12 seats to them before finalising the seat-sharing arrangement among themselves. The party also alleged that the opposition front has taken the CPI(M) and other left parties for granted, showing a lack of willingness to include them in the decision-making processes, a trend they term ‘dangerous’ for the internal unity of the MVA.