MNS: Raj Thackeray to announce candidate list in upcoming party meet

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) is gearing up for the assembly elections scheduled in Maharashtra next month. MNS chief Raj Thackeray has called a meeting of all the senior leaders & party workers on 30th September and is likely to announce the probable candidates of the party contesting the elections this year. It has been reported that MNS will contest elections on 100 to 120 seats. However, earlier the MNS chief had no plans of contesting the elections and had called for a boycott of the assembly polls till the Election Commission agreed to conduct the assembly polls in the state with ballot papers instead of EVM machines.

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Contesting elections

Thackeray met Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar and other opposition leaders with an idea of boycotting assembly elections alleging that the EVMs favoured the BJP who is in power. However, it was reported that the opposition parties were not keen on the idea. Thackeray had to rethink on the idea of boycotting the coming assembly polls due to internal pressure of the party. Reportedly, several leaders from the party want to contest the elections and may go to the extent of contesting independently or seeking ticket from Shiv Sena if MNS refrains from contesting. 

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BJP - Shiv Sena alliance

Amid speculations that the BJP might not agree to the seat-sharing formula being proposed by it for upcoming assembly elections, Shiv Sena is stressing on the 50:50 seat-sharing formula for the upcoming polls. BJP is eyeing more seats to accommodate leaders from other parties who have joined the party recently. 

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NCP - Congress alliance

On the other end, NCP chief had said the NCP and Indian National Congress (INC) will contest 125 seats each in the upcoming polls while 38 seats are given to smaller allies across the state. However, the two parties are facing a mounting problem of their leaders shifting to rival parties before the polls. 

Maharashtra and Haryana assembly polls will be conducted between 21 and the counting for both the states will be held on October 24 

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