Mumbai: The Congress on Saturday denied rumours of conflict among Maha Vikas Aghadi partners and said seat-sharing agreement for the assembly election would soon be announced.

The Congress in-charge for Maharashtra Ramesh Chennithala said there was no dispute between the party’s state president, Nana Patole, and Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut.

Chennithala met Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray at Matoshree on Saturday, following it up with a meeting with NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar. Chennithala told journalists later that the MVA’s seat-sharing agreement would be finalised within a day or two.

“Leaders of all three alliance parties are discussing the seat adjustments together. The health of Uddhav Thackeray [who recently underwent a medical check-up] and the MVA is excellent,” he said.

The Mahayuti coalition was afraid of announcing its chief ministerial face, the Congress leadersaid.

It was reported that around 30 seats in Vidarbha, north Maharashtra and Mumbai were still under discussion. There were also reports of a dispute between Patole and Raut during a meeting at Sofitel Hotel in Bandra on Thursday, but Chennithala dismissed any disagreements within the MVA.

Although Chennithala clarified that there were no disputes, the statements made by Patole and Raut suggest otherwise.

Raut said that the alliance wanted to finalise the seat-sharing discussions by Saturday late night. He said the Samajwadi Party was on board, and Thackeray had held talks with Akhilesh Yadav the previous day. Raut added that his party and Sharad Pawar’s NCP had already settled their seat-sharing since both sides were keen to resolve issues quickly.

His comments seemed to be directed at the Congress, following his criticism of the party’s delays in the seat-sharing talks. Thackeray also urged that disagreements, especially with Congress, should not escalate to breaking point.

Patole, while not responding directly to Raut, explained that seat-sharing committees were formed to keep each party’s leader updated. He said that Thackeray, the Congress’ Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, and Sharad Pawar were not part of these talks but had appointed committees to handle the negotiations. Patole added that it was their job to inform their leaders about the progress and declined to comment further on Raut’s actions.