MVA finalises seat-sharing for 260 seats for Maharashtra Assembly elections: Reports
Mumbai: Reports have suggested that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has reached a consensus on 260 of the 288 seats for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections, with the Congress securing 110 to 115 seats, Shiv Sena (UBT) 83 to 86 seats, and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) 72 to 75 seats. Disagreements over the remaining constituencies are expected to be resolved soon, according to sources.
The seat-sharing agreement follows the Congress's strong performance in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
Discussions are ongoing to allocate the remaining 20 to 25 seats, which are highly contested among the alliance partners. A senior MVA leader involved in the negotiations said that a formula is being developed that takes into account each party’s chances of success in the election.
Several key figures attended the seat-sharing meeting, including Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole, Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders Sanjay Raut and MP Anil Desai, and NCP state president Jayant Patil.
The alliance is also considering giving two to three seats each to the Samajwadi Party, Left parties, and the Peasants and Workers Party. Additionally, Uddhav Thackeray is pushing for more seats in Mumbai and the Konkan region, a traditional stronghold for Shiv Sena. The Congress is expected to contest more seats in Vidarbha, while the NCP will focus on western Maharashtra.
Each party aims to win enough seats to strengthen its claim to the Chief Minister’s post.
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Vistara in-flight experience will continue post-merger, says Air India
New Delhi (PTI): Air India on Friday said Vistara routes and schedule as well as the in-flight experience will continue and the flights operated with Vistara planes will have the code 'AI2' post-merger.
The merger of the two full service carriers is scheduled to be completed on November 12, following which Singapore Airlines will have a 25.1 per cent stake in Air India.
Vistara is a joint venture between Tata Group and Singapore Airlines.
Post the merger, the vintage 'Maharaja' will be retained through the frequent flyer programme of the integrated entity.
"The existing members of Club Vistara will be seamlessly transferred to Air India's Flying Returns program. With this merger, Flying Returns will also evolve into an all-new avatar 'Maharaja Club'," Air India said in the statement.
Reiterating that the experience offered by Vistara will continue for customers post-merger, Air India said Vistara will be identified by a special four-digit Air India code beginning with the digit '2'.
"For instance, UK 955 will become AI 2955 helping customers identify them while booking... after November 12," the statement said.
Further, it said the routes and schedule operated by Vistara aircraft will continue to be the same, alongside the airline's in-flight experience that includes the product and service such as menu and cutlery on the Vistara aircraft.
There are concerns in certain quarters on whether Vistara passengers will continue to get the same services like now, post-merger as Air India, which is in the transformation phase, has been facing certain service issues in recent times.
Air India, on October 2, also said that Vistara experience will remain post-merger.
On Wednesday, Vistara Chairman Bhaskar Bhat said the integrated entity will share the best practices of the two airlines and the livery of Vistara will stay for sometime.
The Air India-Vistara merger, announced in November 2022, will also see Singapore Airlines acquiring a 25.1 per cent stake in the merged entity.
