A glimpse of the progress and its smoothness can be seen in case of Maharashtra where seat sharing among the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharad Pawar) was being considered difficult. However, when they sat to settle the issue, they did it in wonderful smoothness. The state has 48 Lok Sabha seats, and seat-sharing was agreed upon in all the seats. All the three political parties have been part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in the state and now are in INDIA block. They also agreed to induct Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi into its fold. Broad agreement has been reach in 40 seats while differences could not be solved on 8 seats. As per the understanding Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) may contest on 18-20 seats each while NCP (Sharad Pawar) may contest on 8-10 seats. Maharashtra would be the first state to officially announce seat sharing arrangement. After a final meeting early next week.

It should be noted that in the 2019 Lok Sabha election Shiv Sena (undivided) and the BJP had contested under NDA, in which BJP had won 23 seats, Shiv Sena (undivided) 18 seats, NCP (undivided) 4 seats, and Congress 1 seat. The seat sharing arrangement achieved among INDIA constituents show great trouble for the BJP since the party was able to bag only 27.59 per cent of votes. A section of Shiv Sena and a section of NCP after splits led by Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar respectively are with BJP, but with their partial support base BJP may not be able to even retain its seats.

Seat-sharing in Bihar is also in progress in the right direction. The constituent political parties have almost theoretically agreed on the number of seats they would be contesting. JD (U) and RJD would be contesting on 17 seats each while the Congress would contest on 4 seats, and the Left parties on 2 seats. The final agreement would be announced soon, that may spell a great trouble for the BJP, for it had won 17 seats and merely 23.58 per cent of votes from the state in 2019 Lok Sabha election that too when it had contested in alliance with JD(U), a party that has lately deserted the BJP, and now part of INDIA block. JD(U) had won 16 seats, with 21.81 per cent of votes, INC one seat with 7.7 per cent of votes, and RJD 4 seats with 15.36 per cent of votes. BJP’s political fortune from the state is thus set to decline considerably.

There are issues among AAP, SP, TMC and Congress, but the way things are moving, seat sharing agreement in majority of seats would be possible, even though in some of the seats there may not be agreement and the parties would like to contest independently. In any case, the number of such seats out of seat-sharing arrangement would be limited.

For example, one can take the ongoing talks with AAP and Congress. Both the parties are claiming 4 seats while they are ready to give 3 seats to the other. It means, there is no disagreement in contesting three seats each, and only one seat left where there are differences. AAP is also asking for 7 seats out of 13 in Punjab on the basis of its performance in the Vidhan Sabha election of 2022. It should be noted that Congress had won only 8 seats in the Lok Sabha election 2019, and therefore, agreement between the two parties is possible even in that state. AAP also wants to contest in Goa, Haryana, and Gujarat and the talks are going on, but there would not be much problem in those states, such as in Gujarat and Goa, where AAP wants only one seat out of 26 to contest and 1 out of 2 respectively. AAP’s claim in Haryana is on three seats, but they don’t seem to be very adamant.

Talks have already started between Samajwadi Party and the Congress for 80 Lok Sabha seats of Uttar Pradesh. Congress's Salman Khurshid, who attended the meeting for Uttar Pradesh, said things were going in the "right direction". "We are on the same page, I feel we could communicate very well," he added, calling it an "excellent meeting".

Though there have been big differences between TMC and Congress for contesting 42 Lok Sabha seats from the state, Congress leader Salman Khurshid has said that they had got in touch with Derek O’Brien of TMC, “who was very gracious”, and expressed hope that something might still be worked out. TMC chief Mamata Banerjee had claimed that her party stands the best chance to defeat the BJP in West Bengal, and she was right. Congress had won two seats from the state but the state Congress mentioned of ten seats. Now indications suggest that Sonia Gandhi has intervened and she has mentioned six seats for the Congress and the remaining 36 to TMC.

In Jharkhand, Congress, JMM, and RJD had contested Lok Sabha election together, and hence there would not be much difficulty in achieving seat sharing arrangement under INDIA block banner.

‘Well begun is half done’ is a popular proverb that may come true for INDIA alliance partners, which will be seen as the seat-sharing talks for other states in the North and South India progresses in the days to come. The indications are that INDIA alliance is set to offer united contest to BJP’s candidates across the country in most of seats. (IPA Service)