Maharashtra: BJP pins focus on MVA's 78 assembly seats, Raosaheb Danve gives big update

Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Maharashtra core committee in its meeting on Thursday focused on the 78 assembly seats held by the opposition alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). The committee discussed and analysed the criteria on which these seats could be distributed among NDA allies. 

The core committee also discussed at length the process of identifying and classifying seats dominated by the BJP on the basis of vote percentage for the upcoming assembly elections, India Today reported citing sources.

Commenting on the agenda of this meeting, former MP and senior BJP leader said the saffron party decided to focus on around 97,000 booths to bolster its organisational base. Danve added booth chiefs will ensure all welfare schemes reach every city and village. 

The senior BJP leader further said that the BJP will contest the Maharashtra assembly elections in an alliance with NCP-Ajit and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.

He further said that the leaders of BJP, NCP and Shinde Sena will sit together and decide on the number of seats each ally will contest. 

Apart from Union ministers Bhupender Yadav and Ashwini Vaishnaw, the meeting was attended by Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule, and Mumbai president Ashish Shelar.

Pankaja Munde, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Girish Mahajan and other senior leaders were also present at the meeting. Shiv Sena, a BJP ally, is keen to contest on 126 seats and has no plans of settling for anything less than 100. 

Meanwhile, the Congress will also have a brainstorming session in Mumbai today, chaired by the party's Maharashtra in-charge Ramesh Chenithalla and General Secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal, to take stock of its preparation for the assembly polls. 

In this meeting, the party's strategy for the assembly polls as well as its stand in the MVA alliance will be discussed, a top party leader told newswire ANI.

Congress wants to have a big chunk of the Assembly polls and is eyeing to get seats in regions like Vidarbha, North Maharashtra and Marathwada where they have performed well. 

This could lead to some back and forth in the MVA. Shiv Sena (UBT) is aiming to contest on around 115-120 assembly seats in the state.

The decision was taken in meeting chaired by Shiv Sena (UBT) boss Uddhav Thackeray. Senior SS (UBT) leaders including Sanjay Raut, Anil Desai, Rajan Vichare, Sunil Prabhu and Subhas Desai were present at the meeting. 

In this meeting, Thackeray reviewed 125 assembly seats during the meeting. He is also planning to set up a war room with a 'think tank' to target these constituencies, as per sources. 

(With inputs from PTI, Ritvick Arun Bhalekar)