Mumbai, March 23: Sealing the seat-sharing pact for Maharashtra, the Congress and the National Congress Party (NCP) have decided to include three smaller parties - Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS), Bahujan Vikas Aghadi and Yuva Swabhimani Paksha - into their grand alliance. The final agreement comes two days before the last date to file the nominations for the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections 2019.

As pre-poll deal, Congress would keep the lion's share, contesting on 24 of the 48 parliamentary seats in the state. The NCP would be fielding its candidates on 20 seats, whereas, the SSS has been allotted two constituencies, Aghadi and Paksha 1 each. Check Shiv Sena 1st List of Candidates For Lok Sabha Elections 2019.

Shetkari Sanghatana chief Raju Shetty, who had walked out of the NDA in 2017 to protest against the alleged anti-farmer policies of the Narendra Modi government, will be contesting again from the Hatkanangale constituency. Palghar has been left for the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi.

Congress has so far announced candidates for 12 seats and NCP for 16 seats.  Both the parties suffered a setback last week when Sujay, son of Leader of opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, and Ranjitsinh, son of NCP MP and former deputy chief minister Vijaysinh Mohite Patil, joined the BJP.

In a major jolt to the grand alliance on Friday, the NCP's state unit vice president Bharti Pawar and senior Congress leader Pravin Chheda switched over to the BJP, citing their differences with their respective party high commands.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 23, 2019 06:19 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).