Amit Shah in Mumbai, BJP-Shiv Sena seat-sharing deal likely to be finalised today

Mumbai: As the seat-sharing stalemate between Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena continues, BJP president Amit Shah will on Wednesday meet the party leaders and hold talks over the contentious issue in poll-bound Maharashtra.

Shah, who reached Mumbai Tuesday night, is expected to take a final decision on seat-sharing with its long time ally Shiv Sena. Over the past one month, talks have been stuck over the number of seats to be contested by the BJP and the Shiv Sena.

Both BJP and Shiv Sena have been at loggerheads over seat-sharing in the poll-bound state. Sena under the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray on Monday rejected the demand of the BJP to contest 135 seats in Maharashtra.

BJP's poor performance in the recently held bypolls across 10 states is sure to give an upper hand to the Shiv Sena to pressurise its alliance partner, which has openly stated that 'Modi wave' wasn't the only factor that led to the stunning victory of NDA in 2014 General Elections.

Uddhav whose relation with BJP is under strain over seat-sharing also hinted to end the grand alliance and contesting the elections solo, saying "there is an alternative to everything".

Last week, the Sena chief publicly expressed his desire to become the Chief Minister and asked the electors to give him a chance and assured they would not regret.

Interestingly, in the history of Shiv Sena, no one from the influential Thackeray family has ever contested elections.

Uddhav has made it clear that the chief minister will be from his party if Sena-BJP alliance comes to power.

In the Lok Sabha polls, Uddhav said, people voted for a 'face' (Modi) for change and Shiv Sena's contribution in the victory in Maharashtra cannot be ignored.

In the 2009 Assembly polls, Shiv Sena had contested 160 seats and won 44, while BJP bagged 46 despite putting up candidates in only 119 seats. The 2014 Lok Sabha election saw BJP win 23 seats against Shiv Sena's 18.