BJP's Patil, Mungantiwar to meet Sena leaders on seat-sharing

Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil and his party colleague Sudhir Mungantiwar will meet Shiv Sena leaders in the next 10 days to work out modalities of seat-sharing between the two parties for the upcoming Assembly polls. The two saffron parties, partners in the ruling coalitions in Maharashtra and at the Centre, had fought the April-May Lok Sabha polls in alliance.

"Our plan is to have a seat-sharing formula for all the 288 Assembly seats. We will meet (Sena leaders) in the next 10 days," Mungantiwar told reporters on Monday. Mungantiwar, who is also the state finance minister, said he and Patil will lead the talks on seat-sharing on behalf of the BJP.

Among the sticking points between the two parties is the post of chief minister, said sources, with the Sena insisting that the five-year term at the top should be shared equally by the saffron allies if they come to power. Incidentally, in his rally in Solapur on Sunday, BJP chief Amit Shah had asked the gathering to give the alliance a thumping victory and a second term as Chief Minister to Devendra Fadnavis.

The two parties had fought the 2014 Assembly polls separately, with the BJP winning 121 seats on its own. In October 2014, Fadnavis took over as the first BJP Chief Minister of the state. The Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena had joined the Fadnavis government a few months later.

Subsequent local level elections saw the BJP getting the better of the Sena. The two parties have seen several opposition MLAs joining them in the run-up to the state polls likely to be held in the next couple of months..

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