As the suspense over seat-sharing numbers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena continues for the Maharashtra Assembly elections 2019, the former has released its fourth list of candidates for seven seats on Friday, 4 October.
Rohini Khadse, daughter of BJP leader Eknath Khadse, will contest from Muktainagar.
While the final numbers of seats sharing with the Sena is still awaited, the BJP has now declared candidates for 150 out of the 288 seats in the state.
The party’s third list of just four candidates was released a day before on Thursday.
The BJP released its second list of candidates for 14 seats on 2 October, just days after releasing the first list for 125 seats.
Incumbent Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will contest from Nagpur (South West), prominent leaders Chandrakant Patil and Pankaja Munde will contest from Kothrud and Parli constituencies respectively. Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil will contest the polls from Shirdi and Girish Mahajan will be fielded from Jamner.
However, eight incumbent MLAs are not on the list along with Vinod Tawde, Eknath Khadse, Prakash Mehta and Chandrashekhar Bawankule.
Fadnavis and Sena President Uddhav Thackeray are expected to announce the quantum of seat sharing through a joint statement.
Earlier, sources had told The Quint that while the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP will contest on 146 seats out of 288 seats, Sena has agreed to contest on 126 seats. Sixteen of the remaining seats have reportedly been left for smaller allies.
The BJP top brass has repeatedly stressed that Chief Minister Fadnavis would be at the helm of the state once again, but the Shiv Sena has not shied away from projecting party president Uddhav Thackeray's son Aditya for the top post, in the event of the saffron alliance returning to power.
A party source had earlier told PTI that the Sena may agree to contest less seats if Aditya, who will make his poll debut by contesting from Worli next month, is given the deputy chief minister’s post.
Uddhav Thackeray had on Saturday recalled the “promise” he had made to his late father Bal Thackeray to install a 'Shiv Sainik' (party worker) as the chief minister of Maharashtra.
In July, Aaditya had launched a state-wide 'Jan Ashirwad Yatra' to thank the electorate for their support in the last Lok Sabha polls and to seek their backing for the upcoming Assembly elections.
The BJP held a Central Election Committee meeting ahead of the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections recently.
In 2014 elections, the BJP and Sena had contested separately over a dispute over sharing of seats.
The BJP won a maximum of 122 out of 260 seats it had contested, while the Sena bagged 63 out of 282 seats. Both the parties later joined hands to form a BJP-led government in the state.
(With inputs from PTI)
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