‘Aditya’ First in Thakeray Family to Enter into Electoral Politics

The BJP’s another alliance partner, Shiv Sena, has now started its tickets distribution among some of its prosperous candidates.

The party took such initiatives ahead formal announcement of its seat-sharing agreement with the saffron party is sealed.

Those being allotted tickets include seating MLAs or other prosperous candidates.

Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena chief, Uddhav Thackeray, handed over the AB form- denoting official party candidates to his son, Aaditya.

Aditya Thackeray is the first Thackeray to have entered into electoral politics from the family. He would contest from Worli assembly constituency in Mumbai.

In a departure from the practice of formally announcing the list of candidates, the Shiv Sena chief on Sunday handed over AB forms to nearly 20 candidates on seats where there was no tussle with the BJP.

The BJP and Sena leadership is still engaged in a discussion on a few seats for the upcoming Assembly polls on October 21.

The BJP convened its Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting on Sunday in New Delhi where candidates for Maharashtra assembly elections were likely to be finalized along with the seat-sharing pact with the Sena.

The meeting was chaired by BJP national president, Amit Shah, and Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, along with BJP working president JP Nadda. Chief minister, Devendra Fadnav, is and state BJP chief, Chandrakant Patil, were also present in the CEC meeting. Senior Sena leaders said that the announcement of the seat-sharing pact is expected on Monday in a joint press conference addressed by Fadnavis and Uddhav Thackeray.

With Sena announcing its candidates without a formal seat-sharing agreement in place, speculations were raised on the alliance between the saffron parties. However, Sena leader Subhash Desai dismissed it saying, “Announcement regarding seat sharing will be made in a day or two. Now, the discussion is pending only on a few seats therefore, we have given AB forms to our sitting legislators and on seats that are decided”.

Another party functionary added, “A lot of time has gone into the negotiation, then the ‘Pitra Paksh’. With the inauspicious period over, many of them wanted to start the process of filing nominations.