Post-delimitation there will be more seats, lottery for ticket aspirants, says Eknath Shinde

Kolhapur: The redrawing of electoral boundaries after 2026, based on new Census data, is expected to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats from 48 to 72, and state assembly seats from 288 to 432, and this will create more opportunities for ticket aspirants to contest the assembly and the Lok Sabha polls, deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde said in Pandharpur on Sunday.Shinde was addressing an event where Bhagirath Bhalke, the son of three-time former MLA, late Bharat Bhalke, joined Shiv Sena after unsuccessfully contesting the 2024 assembly polls on a Congress ticket."Post-delimitation, there will be lottery everywhere for ticket aspirants," Shinde said, assuring the new entrant's supporters that Bhagirath will become an MLA in the next assembly elections."Many things are changing. Lok Sabha seats are going to increase to 72 and assembly seats to 432. There will be lottery, lottery everywhere. Do you want to see Bhagirath winning that lottery?," asked Shinde, sparking leading loud cheers from Bhalke's supporters.As seen by the opposition, Shinde's "lottery" statement is a promise given to politicians from other parties to join the Mahayuti parties, which can accommodate and give tickets to them as the delimitation exercise will increase the number of seats.Shinde said that since people are joining Shiv Sena, there is no need for ‘operation tiger' - a term used to describe the poaching of the leaders from other parties.Bhagirath had lost to BJP candidate by a very thin margin in the 2024 assembly election. Ever since he declared his decision to join Shiv Sena, alliance partner and BJP politicains have been claiming that the switch over would be futile as the seat belongs to BJP.Is there need to tell which Shiv Sena is original, asks ShindeShinde said that after he rebelled, many joined him. "Shiv Sena's karwan (caravan) is moving fast. All are joining Shiv Sena. Therefore, I want to ask if there is a need to tell which Shiv Sena is original, and which is new?" said Shinde.Shinde claimed that warkaris, during one of the Ashadi Ekadashi days he visited as CM, told him that he took the right decision to rebel against Uddhav Thackeray's leadership. Shinde said that the decision of the Pandharpur temple corridor plan will be taken only after taking the residents of the temple town in confidence.