India, May 24 -- The sharing of 17 seats in the legislative council polls to be held on June 18 has led to an intense face-off among the Mahayuti allies. The BJP and Shiv Sena are at loggerheads over the number of seats as well as over a few constituencies where the political strength of the two parties is almost the same. BJP leaders Chandrashekhar Bawankule and Ravindra Chavan met Shiv Sena head Eknath Shinde on Saturday to persuade him to settle for fewer seats.

Given the results of the recent local bodies polls, the Mahayuti constituents-the BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP-are in a position to win almost all the seats. The three collectively won 8,239 of the 12,201 seats and chalked up a win of over 67.5% in the newly formed bodies, with the ...