A meeting was held at the residence of Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray on September 15, 2019, which saw all of their Members of Parliament (MP), Members of Legislative Assembly (MLA), as well as senior and local leaders in attendance. The meeting was called by Uddhav Thackeray was to essentially inform all the party members to be prepared to contest alone for the 288 seats if the alliance with BJP fails.

Read| Shiv Sena and BJP review poll preparedness for Maharashtra Elections

Thackeray: 'Be prepared to contest alone'

Amid speculations that the BJP might not agree to the seat-sharing formula originally proposed by it, for the upcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena has been conducting interviews of ticket aspirants for all the 288 assembly seats and reviewed its poll preparedness on Sunday at a party meeting.

The Shiv Sena President further added that before the Lok Sabha polls, senior BJP leader and Home Minister Amit Shah had promised that seats would be divided 50-50 between the two parties for the assembly elections and now Thackeray hopes that the BJP keeps that promise.

READ | Uddhav Thackeray: 'No issues between Shiv Sena and BJP seat-sharing'

Aaditya Thackeray: 'Sena will go by the 50:50 formula'

While the Sena is stressing on the 50:50 seat-sharing formula for the upcoming polls, the BJP is apparently eyeing more seats to accommodate leaders from other parties who have joined the party recently. However, Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray, who is currently touring Konkan region as a part of his 'Jan Aashirwad Yatra', maintained the Sena will go by the 50:50 formula announced by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis while declaring the alliance in February.

Uddhav Thackeray, the Shiv Sena chief had previously stated that there is no issue over seat-sharing with its ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the Maharashtra Assembly elections. He further stated that everything between the Shiv Sena and the BJP has been already decided. The Maharashtra Assembly polls are due in October.

READ | Encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma to join Shiv Sena, fight elections

READ | Maharashtra elections: BJP-Sena alliance to continue, says Uddhav