Mumbai : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena have finalised the seat-sharing formula for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections 2019, said some media reports.
According to the reports, the Shiv Sena has accepted the BJP’s offer to contest on 126 seats while the latter will contest on 144 seats. The remaining 18 seats will be given other alliance partners. The reports further said that the Shiv Sena will also get the post of the Deputy Chief Minister.
The agreement was sealed after Home Minister Amit Shah chaired a meeting of the BJP’s core group from Maharashtra to give final shape to its poll strategy and zero down on candidates for the state assembly elections on October 21.
The meeting was attended by BJP working president JP Nadda, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union minister Nitin Gadkari, party general secretaries Bhupender Yadav and Saroj Pandey.
However, a formal announcement regarding the same is yet to be made but as per sources, it is likely to be made at a joint press conference of Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and Fadnavis in Mumbai on September 29.
In the meeting, the party leaders also discussed the names of the candidates and some sitting MLAs are likely to be dropped.
Elections will be held in Maharashtra on October 21 and the results will be declared on October 24.
In 2014 polls, the Shiv Sena and the BJP had ended their alliance ahead of the Assembly poll, only to get back together after the state had delivered a split verdict.
The Shiv Sena, in 2014, had contested on 282 seats and won 63, while the BJP had contested on 260 and scored a victory on 122.
