BJP to offer 124 seats to Shiv Sena for Maharashtra Assembly elections

In a crucial central election committee meeting on Sunday in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also present, the BJP understood to have decided to allot 124 seats to Shiv Sena in the upcoming elections for 288 seats of Maharashtra assembly. A formal announcement, however, was yet to be announced at the time of writing this report.

The division of seats was a major thorny issue between the two coalition partners as Shiv Sena was not ready to play a second fiddle to the BJP on its home turf of Maharashtra and wanted equal division of seats.

With the last date of nominating candidates just five days away on October 4 for the two poll bound states of Maharashtra and Haryana and Congress already declaring its candidates for 51 seats in Maharashtra, an early resolution of seat division had become even more necessary for the two parties.

Besides Maharashtra, the meeting also discussed Haryana where the party faces the problem of plenty for choosing candidates for 90-member assembly elections.

The marathon meeting of BJP's CEC started around 5 pm and ended at around 10 pm Besides PM Modi, top BJP leaders like party president and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, working president JP Nadda were also present to take a decision on the list of candidates in Maharashtra and Haryana.

The chief ministers of both the poll going states – Devendra Fadanavis and Manohar Lal Khattar – were also present in the meeting along with respective state election in-charges and party presidents.