BJP to contest 148 seats in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena to fight in 126

Mumbai, Oct 04: Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena have finalised a seat sharing deal for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly election 2019 where Shiv Sena will be contesting 126 seats, allies on 14 and BJP will be contesting all other seats in 288-member Assembly.

Fadnavis, addressing a joint press conference with Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, said that despite their differences, the BJP and Shiv Sena share the "common thread" of Hindutva and will retain power in Maharashtra after the October 21 Assembly polls.

Fadnavis said the 'Mahayuti' alliance comprising BJP, Sena and other parties will get an unprecedented victory in the elections.

Fadnavis added that Aaditya Thackeray, son of Uddhav Thackeray, will win the Worli seat Assembly poll by polling the highest number of votes.

He said he will ask all rebel BJP candidates to withdraw from the poll arena in the next two days.

To a query on why some senior leaders, including cabinet ministers were not fielded by the BJP, Fadnavis said, "nobody has been dropped, they have only been reassigned responsibilities.

In 2014 polls, Shiv Sena had contested on 282 seats and won 63, while the BJP had contested on 260 and scored victory on 122.

The polling this year is scheduled to take place on October 21 and the results will be declared on October 24.

(with PTI inputs)