Maha Assembly polls: Shiv Sena to contest 288 seats if BJP fails to respond; final decision on Monday

Mumbai: In what can break the decade-long political alliance in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena on Sunday said that it will contest all 288 seats in the state alone if the BJP does not respond to the party's offer on seat-sharing soon, as per reports.

The final decision of the party is expected to be announced on Monday.

The Shiv Sena held over an hour-long meeting at Matoshree today where the party's top brass were said to have finalised some names of the candidates for the Assembly polls.

Earlier in the day, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had offered 119 seats to BJP while keeping 151 seats for his own party.  

Addressing his party workers here, Thackeray said there is a tug of war going on in the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance.

"The party workers have given me the authority to take a decision and I will do it with responsibility, keeping everything in mind. We are making the last effort to save the alliance. 151 seats for Shiv Sena, 119 for BJP and the rest 18 for others," he said.

The Shiv Sena supremo further said that seat distribution was a complicated affair.

Asserting that alliance with the Shiv Sena should move in a forward direction, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vinod Tawde on Sunday said the party headed by Uddhav Thackeray should be open to discussions and not rigid on its stand over distribution of seats for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly polls.

"Uddhav Thackeray may have given us a formula but the feeling in the BJP is that the alliance should go on. And if that is to happen, there can be no `final` formula. Till a final decision is made, discussions can keep on happening," he told ANI here.

Tawde further said that the BJP was only working for the interest of Maharashtra and added that his party did not have the Chief Minister`s post in mind.

(With ANI inputs)