Lok Sabha Elections 2019: BJP And Shiv Sena Finalise Seat-sharing Deal in Maharashtra, Say Sources

Reportedly, BJP will be giving its Palghar seat to Shiv Sena.

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena have finalised the seat-sharing deal in Maharashtra for upcoming Lok Sabha elections 2019, said the sources. The saffron party will contest the election on 25 seats while Shiv Sena will fight on 23 seats.

Reportedly, BJP will be giving its Palghar seat to Shiv Sena. A meeting between Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray was held on Friday evening. The announcement on seat sharing is expected to be made soon. (ALSO READ: SP, BSP Finalise Seat-sharing Deal in UP For LS Polls, Leave Two Seats For Congress: Report)

Meanwhile, on Friday, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut had said the BJP’s regional partners must get chief minister’s post in their respective states. “If an NDA government is formed in 2019, Shiv Sena, Akali Dal, and other major allies will have a role. All the allies of NDA are strong in their states and if you (BJP) want to have an alliance with them at the centre, the chief minister in that state should be from that ally,” Raut had said to the news agency ANI. (ALSO READ: Shiv Sena Says no to Alliance With BJP, Assures Support to Nitin Gadkari ‘if he Emerges as PM Face‘)

On January 23, the Shiv Sena had ruled out any alliance with the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections. The party had said that it will extend its support to Nitin Gadkari if he is the PM face.

Speaking to an English newspaper, Sena leader Sanjay Raut had predicted a hung house in the general polls and said that the BJP only thinks about itself which is why ‘we are also thinking about ourselves’. The leader yet again made it clear that the word ‘alliance’ does not exist in Sena’s dictionary. However, he asserted that the party will support Gadkari if he comes out to be the PM face.

Both the parties have been at loggerheads for many months. The BJP ally had supported the Opposition demand in Lok Sabha for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the Rafale issue. On the other hand, Amit Shah, in a veiled warning to the Sena, had said that if an alliance is forged, the party will ensure victory for its allies, but if it did not, the party will defeat its former allies in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

It is to be noted here that the two parties had contested the 2014 Maharashtra polls separately but later joined hands to form a government in the state.

(With agency inputs)