PM Modi, Uddhav Thackeray to share dais in Latur rally
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will share the stage at a rally in Maharashtra on Tuesday for the first time after the tie-up of their parties for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The two leaders will address a public gathering at Ausa in Latur in support of the alliance candidates in that district, BJP spokesman Keshav Upadhyay said today.
Both leaders last shared the stage in December 2016
The prime minister and the Shiv Sena supremo last shared the dais in Mumbai in December 2016 at a function to lay the foundation stone of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial off the Arabian Sea. On Saturday, Modi addressed a rally in Nanded, where state Congress president and former chief minister Ashok Chavan is contesting against BJP's candidate, Pratap Chikhalikar.
BJP, Sena to contest from 25 and 23 seats, respectively
The Sena, which has often been critical of the BJP and policies of the NDA government, entered into a seat-sharing pact with it recently after the ruling party's president, Amit Shah visited Thackeray at his residence in Mumbai. The BJP and Sena announced to contest from 25 and 23 seats, respectively, in Maharashtra which has 48 Lok Sabha constituencies.
BJP, Sena went separate ways after the 2014 LS polls
However, before this alliance phase, BJP and Shiv Sena went separate ways after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and contested the Maharashtra Assembly elections held later that year on their own. The BJP-led government under the leadership of Devendra Fadnavis took charge in the state in October 2014 and the Shiv Sena joined the party in December that year.
