Shiv Sena and BJP will contest upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections jointly, a senior Sena leer said on Friday. details on alliance would be anunced on or before BJP chief Amit Shah's Mumbai visit on September 22, Sena secretary Anil Desai told a TV channel. Desai's comments came on sidelines of a meeting of senior Sena leers held in Mumbai on Friday, to discuss poll preparations.

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A Conditional Alliance

On reports that Sena will contest 126 seats and BJP 162 of total 288 seats in Assembly, Desai declined to comment on figures, ding seat-sharing will be as decided by Uddhav Thackeray and Chief Minister Devendra Fnavis.

Diwakar Raote, senior Shiv Sena leer and Minister in Maharashtra government, h recently said that alliance will break if Sena doesn't get to contest 50% of seats. A few days later, Sena leer Sanjay Raut h said -

"BJP will have to respect 50-50 formula that was decided in presence of Shah and Fnavis."

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Rough patch in 2014

BJP and Shiv Sena contested 2014 State Assembly elections separately after y failed to arrive at a seat-sharing formula. After BJP formed government in October 2014, Sena joined Cabinet same year.

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