Mumbai Popular Marathi TV star Adesh Bandekar joined the Shiv Sena on Friday. Welcoming Bandekar into the party fold, Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray said the alliance between the Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party for the Assembly polls would be finalised soon after discussions to clear the air on a couple of seats.
Bandekar’s entry into the Sena comes close on the heels of the first Indian Idol, singer Abhijeet Sawant, joining the party.
Bandekar joined the Sena in presence of Uddhav and wife Rashmi at a function organised at the Thackeray residence, Matoshree, in Bandra on Friday morning. Bandekar’s TV show ‘Home Minister’ on a Marathi channel (in which he visits homes and interviews women, who have to play games to win a Paithani, an expensive traditional handwoven silk saree, in each episode) is quite popular among housewives.
Bandekar, along with Sawant, is expected to add glamour to the poll campaign.
Uddhav, speaking about finalising the seat-sharing arrangements for the October 13 polls with the BJP, said, “We are finalising seatsharing between the two parties. It will be done soon.”
“There are no differences between the alliance partners on seatsharing. There are a couple of seats which both parties are staking claim to. But things would be sorted out in a few days,” he said.
In the 2004 polls, the Sena had contested 171 seats and the BJP 117 of the total 288 seats and the formula is likely to be repeated this time. Sources said that post-delimitation, the Sena has claimed Guhagar seat in Konkan currently with the BJP. Leader of the Opposition Ramdas Kadam of the Sena is keen on contesting Guhagar as his Khed constituency has been wiped out in the delimitation exercise.
On the crisis within the BJP at the national level, Uddhav said it would have no effect on the elections in Maharashtra.
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