MUMBAI: The BJP and the Shiv Sena on Monday announced their poll pact for upcoming Lok Sabha and assembly elections in Maharashtra. The decision was taken during a meeting between BJP president Amit Shah and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray here. The BJP will contest 25 seats and Shiv Sena 23 of 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. The two parties will contest equal number of seats, along with their other allies, in elections for the 288-member state Assembly, due this year.

BJP President Amit Shah and Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, along with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, former Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi and other senior leaders from both sides made the announcement at a joint media briefing late this evening.

The BJP and the Shiv Sena, who have had a strained relationship for over four years despite being partners in the central and the state government, had contested the October 2014 Maharashtra Assembly election separately and came together to form government in a post-poll arrangement.

"We have been together for over 25 years because of our shared ideologies and spirit of nationalism. In 2014 elections, owing to certain reasons we had split, but later since the past nearly five years we are in alliance in Maharashtra and at the Centre," Fadnavis said adding that it was public sentiment that both parties should come together.

Now, the partnership will continue for the 2019 Lok Sabha and Assembly and others elections on a wide-ranging basis, he added.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the two parties along with their allies had won 42 out of the 48 seats. The BJP had bagged 23 seats, while the Shiv Sena had emerged victorious in 18 constituencies. We have taken this decision in the interest of the nation and we believe the NDA will come to power in the Lok Sabha elections, Fadnavis said.

"For assembly elections, we will hold discussions with our other allies. Leaving the numbers of seats taken by our allies, the BJP and the Shiv Sena will fight on equal number of seats," the chief minister said.

Crores of workers of BJP and Shiv Sena wanted the alliance between the two parties, Amit Shah said. The Sena is the oldest ally of BJP, he added. "The BJP and Sena alliance will win at least 45 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra," Shah said.

The Ram temple has been the common thread for alliance between BJP and Shiv Sena, Thackeray said. It has to be built at the earliest, he added. “People have seen Sena and BJP for the past 30 years. For 25 years, we stood united and for five years, there was confusion. But like the chief minister (Fadnavis) said, I still provided guidance to government from time to time,” Thackeray said.