Maharashtra polls: Javadekar predicts 200+ seats for BJP-Sena alliance

Asserting that there was never a "big brother" in the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar exuded confidence that the two parties together will win more than 200 seats in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly in the upcoming polls. The BJP is a party which works 24/7 and the moment 2019 elections ended, it started preparing for the next election, the Union minister said in an interaction with PTI journalists at the news agency's headquarters in New Delhi.

"The Congress party could not find a replacement of its president for two months. Within those two months we had new working president in place, we launched our new massive membership drive and added eight crore members, making it a 19 crore-member party. It is huge," he said. "So, we are working on the ground and our forte is booth. We remain among the people 24/7 for which people reward us," he asserted.

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Asked about opposition's claim that the BJP is raising the abrogation of Article 370 provisions is state polls to divert attention from local issues, Javadekar said it is the people who are talking about the issue as it caught their imagination. He also said the media created the jargon of "big brother" in the BJP-Sena combine and asserted that no one in the alliance declared so.

Javadekar also expressed confidence that the two parties together will comfortably get a majority in the Maharashtra Assembly polls.

"We are fighting as an alliance and the alliance will get more than 200 seats. We are very confident," he said.

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Of the 288 assembly seats, the Shiv Sena will contest 124, smaller NDA allies such as RPI and RSP will contest 14, and remaining seats (150) will be fought by the BJP. The Sena is also expected to get two berths in the Legislative Council from the BJP quota.

The Sena and BJP had contested the state polls separately in 2014. Assembly elections in Maharashtra besides Haryana will be held on October 21. Counting will take place on October 24. 

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