Maharashtra Assembly polls: Shiv Sena fields Aaditya Thackeray from Mumbai's Worli; seat-sharing talks with BJP on

The Shiv Sena on Sunday announced that Aaditya Thackeray, son of party chief Uddhav Thackeray, will contest the Maharashtra Assembly polls from the Worli seat in Mumbai and allowed its incumbent MLAs to file their nominations, reported ANI.

Shiv Sena's Aditya Thackeray to contest from Worli Assembly seat in Mumbai. (File pic) #MaharashtraAssemblyPolls https://t.co/gZJXUnmYnT pic.twitter.com/tIhgodOGMj

— ANI (@ANI) September 29, 2019

The party also announced its candidates for some more seats, which according to party sources are “tussle-free”. Maharashtra minister of state for home Deepak Kesarkar will contest from Sawantwadi in Konkan’s Sindhudurg while Rajesh Kshirsagar will fight the polls from Kolhapur city, Sena sources told PTI. The Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are in the midst of some hard-nosed seat-sharing talks, with reports suggesting that the BJP is not keen on sharing an equal number of seats, as had been touted earlier.

While the BJP wants a bigger share, on the back of its spectacular performance in the April-May Lok Sabha polls, the Sena is not willing to play ball, said sources from both parties. Reports now suggest that party is likely to contest around 120-125 Assembly seats while the BJP is likely to contest 155-160 seats in the elections scheduled for 21 October. With inputs from agencies