The Shiv Sena and the BJP will form a pre-poll alliance to ensure there is no division of votes during the 2019 Lok Sabha election, state finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said Monday. Advertising He said that discussions between the two alliance partners were underway and a positive outcome was expected soon. “The BJP and Shiv Sena will form a pre-poll alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha election. The purpose is to avoid division of votes,” Mungantiwar told the media at the BJP headquarters. If the two parties contest separately, it will lead to a splitting of votes giving the advantage to Opposition parties, the Congress and the NCP. “Shiv Sena and BJP are mindful of the fact that people want them to contest the elections together to take ahead the development agenda in Maharashtra,” he said. The Congress and NCP have already decided to form a pre-poll alliance. The 2014 Lok Sabha results were a pointer to how the pre-poll alliance worked in favour of the Sena-BJP to defeat the Congress-NCP. Their vote share was consolidated through a pre-poll pact. In 2014 Lok Sabha election, for 48 seats, the BJP polled 27. 56 per cent votes and the Shiv Sena polled 20.82 per cent; together the vote share was 48.38 per cent. The Congress polled 18.29 per cent votes while the NCP polled 16.12 per cent, adding up to 34.41 per cent in that election. Smaller parties and Independents together got 17.21 per cent votes. Mungantiwar said that the Shiv Sena and BJP have had a long political association, the only exception being the 2014 Assembly election in September-October 2014, when the parties fought separately. Even the Congress and the NCP contested the Assembly election separately. He said the top leadership of Sena and BJP were in communication. “We are talking to each other regularly. We are taking decisions together in the state Cabinet meetings. There are department meetings when BJP and Sena Cabinet ministers work together on policy matters,” he added. Advertising “There is no reason why anybody should have doubts about the Sena-BJP alliance,” Mungantiwar said.

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