Chandrakant Patil, the Minister and Former State Chief of Maharashtra has claimed that there are currently no plans for seat-sharing arrangements between the BJP and Shiv Sena for the upcoming Assembly elections. This announcement comes after a statement by Maharashtra BJP State President Chandrashekhar Bawankule regarding seat sharing between the two parties, which sparked a dispute with the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi criticizing him.
Patil made this statement while unveiling a number of initiatives for the Pimpri Chinchwad neighbourhood, including the establishment of the Shankarao Masulkar Urban Health Center, Eye Hospital, and Trash Migration Project. He stated that these initiatives would be helpful to residents of all socioeconomic groups. Bawankule had earlier stated that the
BJP would contest 240 seats and offer the remaining 48 seats to the Shiv Sena, without mentioning the independents. However, he later emphasized that no official decision has yet been made about the splitting of the seats and that the goal would be to win at least 200 seats out of 288 in the upcoming Assembly elections alongside the
Shiv Sena.
The Shiv Sena is currently the government's ally and is led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. However, the relationship between the two parties has been strained since Shiv Sena broke off its alliance with the BJP in 2019 and formed a coalition government with the NCP and INC. In any case, Patil's statement suggests that the BJP is not currently considering forming an alliance with the Shiv Sena and is gearing up to contest the elections on its own. It remains to be seen how the election plays out and whether any alliance will be formed after the results are declared.
