Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday said a seat-sharing formula for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections would be decided after holding discussions with allies, days after he asserted that the BJP would contest 26 out of 48 seats in the state.

He also said that respective parties should get to retain the constituencies they had contested earlier while underlining the "basis" of the seat-sharing formula.

The Mahayuti alliance comprises Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar faction).

"Discussions between allies are yet to begin and a formula would be decided only after the deliberations. The basis of the formula will be: the seats should go to those (parties) who have already contested that particular constituency," Fadnavis told reporters when asked about his remarks that BJP would contest 26 out of 48 from Maharashtra in the general elections while the allies will get 22 seats.

Fadnavis said the seat-sharing formula won't be static. "We will make necessary changes and discuss with the alliance partners".

The BJP and Shiv Sena (Undivided) had contested 41 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra in the 2019 elections, and won 23 and 18, respectively.

Meanwhile, Fadnavis said the state government would help farmers whose crops were affected by unseasonal rains.

"Officials of the affected districts should conduct the primary assessment of the crop loss and send the reports. The government will certainly help the farmers," Fadnavis added.

He declined to comment when asked about the hearings to be conducted by the state assembly speaker on disqualification pleas of NCP MLAs loyal to the Ajit Pawar faction.

"The hearing issue is quasi-judicial and the speaker has the tribunal status. It won't be appropriate to comment," he added.

The Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar factions of the Nationalist Congress Party recently submitted their responses to assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar in connection with the disqualification petitions submitted against each other.

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