On Sunday, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray distributed A and B forms to incumbent legislators and on seats that the Sena has traditionally contested from
In an apparent pressure tactic, while the alliance with the BJP is yet to be announced formally, the Shiv Sena has begun distributing nominations to party candidates for the assembly elections.
Meanwhile, Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray, who is Sena president Uddhav Thackeray's elder son, is likely to be declared as the party nominee from Worli in a party rally on Monday.
The Sena is likely to renominate all its sitting MPs except Sunil Shinde (Worli) – who will make way for Aaditya – and rebels Harshavardhan Jadhav (Kannad) and Pratap Patil Chikhalikar (Loha), who shifted to the BJP and was elected as an MP from Nanded.
On Sunday, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray distributed A and B forms to incumbent legislators and on seats that the Sena has traditionally contested from.
For instance, while ministers of state Arjun Khotkar and Vijay Shivtare, who represent Jalna and Purandar- Haveli (Pune), have been renominated, so have all six MLAs from Kolhapur, including state planning commission chairman Rajesh Kshirsagar, who is a legislator from the town in western Maharashtra.
In addition, the Sena has declared candidates from seats from where the party has traditionally contested or has stood second against Congress and NCP nominees in 2014.
This includes Yogesh Kadam, the son of environment minister Ramdas Kadam from Dapoli, Sanjay Ghatge (Kagal) and Sangramsinh Kupekar (Chandgad). These seats are represented by the NCP's Sanjay Kadam, Hasan Mushrif and Sandhyadevu Kupekar, respectively.
"The alliance with BJP seems to be a formality. There is no harm in announcing nominees on seats where our claim is clear in terms of a sitting MLA or our candidate being the runner-up in the previous elections. These are seats which the BJP has not laid a claim on," said a senior Sena leader.
Another Shiv Sena leader said that while the BJP was amenable to an alliance with the Sena, the point of conflict lay in the seat-sharing and power-sharing agreement.
When the BJP and Shiv Sena announced their alliance for the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had agreed to an equal sharing of seats after setting aside assembly segments for their smaller allies.
However, the runaway success of the alliance nationally as well as in the state has given the BJP more space to bargain with the Sena.
"The BJP may give us up to 128 seats and retain the position of a senior ally, but we are worried if the party's cadre will work for Shiv Sena nominees," said a senior Shiv Sena leader.
He added that the party would have been in a better position to bargain with the BJP had it stuck to its plan of contesting the Lok Sabha elections alone.
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