Ahead of the Assembly polls, BJP chief Amit Shah held amarathon meeting with CM Devendra Fadnavis, state party chief Chandrakant Patiland other state core committee members in New Delhi on Thursday. The allianceformula will be finalised after the CM conveys Shah’s decision to Sena chiefUddhav Thackeray. It will be announced only after September 28.

The meeting, which went on for nearly nine hours fromThursday afternoon, was to finalise candidates. Fadnavis is also learnt to haveconveyed and discussed the saffron seat-sharing negotiations with the Sena withShah. The formula discussed includes 126 seats for the Sena and 162 seats forthe BJP and its smaller allies. Going by this formula, it is also learnt thatthe BJP may hand over only eight seats to its smaller allies and even thesecandidates will be made to contest on the party’s lotus symbol.

The party is keen on reaching a clear majority in the 288member house on its own, and so wants to contest maximum number of seatspossible. The party president discussed each of the seats with us, the corecommittee. That’s why it took long. A majority of the candidates have beenfinalised. In 20% of the seats, we had more than one aspirant. There will bechange in 10-15% of our candidates,” said a senior state BJP leader, addingFadnavis will hold a meeting with Shah to finalise the formula.

After the last round , it is learnt the Sena has refused togo below 126 seats, while the BJP was not willing to offer more than 120 seats.Moreover, the tussle is also over around 8-10 seats the Sena has sought in NaviMumbai, Vidarbha, north Maharashtra and even in Mumbai