Even before the announcement of an alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena, the latter has already started distributing AB forms required to file nominations for the Assembly elections.
According to a source, the Sena leadership is getting impatient with the BJP stretching the announcement of the alliance, and has therefore decided to not wait for the official word and go ahead with confirming its candidates on seats which are already with the party or which it won in the 2014 elections.
Meanwhile, the saffron partners will finalise the seat-sharing on Monday and formally announce the alliance on Tuesday. On Sunday, the BJP’s core committee met in Delhi where the discussion on seat-sharing was held. After the meeting, the BJP has agreed to share 126 of the 288 Assembly seats with the Sena, according to sources. Of the remaining 162, the BJP will contest 144 while 18 will be given to allies. The meeting also discussed the possibility of deputy CM post to the Sena, but has decided against it, the sources said.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and State BJP president Chandrakant Patil also discussed at the meeting the inner-party discontent over the distribution of tickets. According to sources in the BJP, a few Congress MLAs whose names have not figured in the first list the party released on Sunday are likely to join the BJP on Monday. Among them are Rahul Bondre, Aslam Sheikh, D.S. Ahire, Kashiram Pawra, Bharat Bhelke and Siddharam Mhetre.
A Sena leader said, “Yes, Uddhavji has given forms to our sitting MLAs and we will distribute them to our candidates for seats which we are sure to contest.”
Among those who have got the forms are all six MLAs from Kolhapur, Rajabhau Vaje from Sinnar in Nashik, Dada Bhuse in Malegaon, Anil Kadam in Nifad, Yogesh Gholap in Deolali, Sanjay Shirsat in Aurangabad West, and Deepak Kesarkar in Sawantwadi. The party has also decided to start giving out AB forms to its MLAs in Mumbai.
“These are the seats which we are going to contest at any cost. There was no point in waiting for an announcement on these seats. Today (Sunday) is the auspicious day of Navaratri and therefore we decided to announce it today,” the leader said.
