BJP-Sena Seal 162-126 Seat-Sharing Agreement For Maharashtra Polls: Sources

Amid uncertainty over alliance for the upcoming Maharashtra polls, Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena have sealed a 162-126 seat-sharing formula, sources said. An official announcement in this regard will be made in a day or two, added the sources.

Meanwhile, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said that systematic talks were held with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and other BJP leaders over alliance for 2019 Assembly polls in the state. “We have held systematic talks with BJP leaders. I hope that in a day or two we will come to a decision,” he said.

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The development comes a day after senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut endorsed the view of a party leader who had said that if Sena did not get half seats to contest in the upcoming assembly polls then the alliance with BJP could break.

"BJP will have to respect the fifty-fifty formula that was decided in presence of Amit Shah and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. I am not talking of breaking alliance but what Diwakar Raote has said is not wrong," Sanjay Raut told ANI.

Diwakar Raote, who is also a minister in Maharashtra government, had on Wednesday said that the pre-poll alliance between the two parties could break if Shiv Sena is not given equal number of seats by the BJP.

In 2014, the BJP and Shiv Sena had contested the assembly polls separately, winning 122 and 63 seats, respectively. The BJP formed its government under Fadnavis in October 2014 and the Shiv Sena joined the dispensation a few months later.

The Congress and NCP had bagged 42 and 41 seats, respectively. The Congress and NCP, too, had contested the 2014 polls separately after sharing power for 15 years in the state. The assembly polls in the state are due in the next few months.