BJP, Sena seat-sharing pact for Maha; Sena to get Dy CM

After days of wrangling, BJP and Shiv Sena have clinched a seat-sharing deal for the Maharashtra Assembly elections under which the BJP will contest 144 seats, leaving 126 seats and the deputy chief minister's post for its ally.

The seat-sharing agreement was finalised after a series of meetings in Mumbai and Delhi, the latest being on Thursday in the capital, where BJP chief Amit Shah had hours-long of deliberations with the party Maharashtra unit.

The two allies have also agreed to leave 18 seats for smaller parties such as the RPI(A), Rashtriya Samaj Paksha and Rayat Kranti Sangathana. Maharashtra has a 288-seat Assembly. Leaders of both the parties were tight-lipped on the seat-sharing deal and a formal announcement was likely to be made in a day or two.

Chaired by Shah, the BJP Core Group meeting was attended by BJP working president J P Nadda, senior leaders Nitin Gadkari, Bhupendra Yadav, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, state unit chief Chandrakant Patil and other leaders from the state.

The core group meeting was followed by a series of meetings to discuss candidates and plan out the campaign at the residence of Yadav. In 2014, Maharashtra had witnessed a four-cornered contest with BJP, Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP going it alone.

In the Congress camp, top leaders were closeted at the party's 'war room' here to finalise its nominees for the elections in Maharashtra. The screening committee, chaired by AICC General Secretary Jyotiraditya Scindia, met here on Thursday morning. The meeting was attended by AICC General Secretary Mallikarjun Kharge, in-charge of party affairs in the state, Maharashtra Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat, senior leaders Eknath Gaikwad, Vijay Wadettiwar, among others.

The Central Election Committee of the Congress also met on Thursday evening to finalise candidates for 116 seats. As per the seat-sharing formula, Congress and NCP were to put up candidates on 125 seats each, leaving 38 seats for smaller parties.

However, neither the BJP nor the Congress were expected to announce the list of candidates till the end of the 'shraadh' period, considered inauspicious by many, on Saturday.

Also, the NCP has decided to leave the Satara Parliamentary seat, which fell vacant after sitting party member Udayanraje Bhosale quit to join the BJP, for the Congress. Former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan is expected to be the Congress candidate for the Lok Sabha bye-election which would be held on October 21.