BJP-Shiv Sena to begin joint election campaign from Friday

"Alliance partners Shiv Sena-BJP will begin their joint campaign for the Lok Sabha elections from Friday," Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut informed on Thursday.

"Senior leaders from both the parties including Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will be present on the occasion," he added.

BJP-Shiv Sena last month finalised a plan to contest the upcoming elections jointly. While BJP will contest on 25 seats, Shiv Sena will contest on 23 seats.

Although both the parties have been in alliance for past several decades, they broke up in 2014 for a brief time just before the legislative elections in Maharashtra. BJP demanded a higher share of seats which Shiv Sena was not willing to concede.

Out of 288 legislative seats, BJP won 122 while Shiv Sena managed to win only 63 seats.

Shiv Sena later joined the government headed by BJP Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Even while being a part of the alliance, it repeatedly criticised the central and state government of which it was a part.

The two parties contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections jointly and won a landslide victory. Out of 48 seats, the BJP-Shiv Sena combined managed to win 41 seats. Swabhimani Shetkari Saghtana (then in NDA) headed by Raju Shetti also won one seat.

This year, Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra are slated to take place in four phases. The results will be announced on May 23.