Shiv Sena fields junior Thackeray from Worli

The Shiv Sena on Sunday decided to field Aditya Thackeray, son of party chief Uddhav Thackeray, from the Worli Assembly Constituency of Mumbai for the State Assembly polls. It is for the first time in the party's history that someone from the Thackeray family will be in the fray to elections.

Presently Shiv Sena Sunil Shinde is MLA from this seat.

Sources have stated that the post of Deputy Chief Minister is likely to be considered for junior Thackeray. The solution was arrived at after BJP rejected Sena's proposal to share the Chief Minister's post for two and a half years each over the next term.

This comes as Shiv Sena Chief on Sunday distributed Form AB (that authorises a candidate as official party candidate) to its incumbent MLAs, even as the seat-sharing agreement with BJP for the Maharashtra Assembly polls are at the final stage and are yet to be finalised.

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut had earlier said his party will snap ties with BJP if it was not given 144 seats in the 288-members Assembly to contest in the upcoming elections. While Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday reiterated that BJP and Sena will contest the Assembly polls in Maharashtra together and are working on the seat-sharing agreement.

The BJP and Shiv Sena contested 2014 state assembly elections separately after they failed to arrive at a seat-sharing formula. However, they formed the government in the alliance after the elections as none of them was able to secure the majority on its own.

Last month, junior Thackeray launched a state-wide 'Jan Ashirwad Yatra' to express thank to voters for their support in the last Lok Sabha polls and also to seek their favour for the upcoming Assembly elections.