Mumbai, June 22 (IANS): Maharashtra BJP’s core committee held a marathon meeting till Friday midnight and discussed the roadmap for the upcoming assembly elections and the strategy for the biennial election to the state council slated for July 12.

The meeting was attended by among others Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, former Union minister Raosaheb Danve, former state minister Pankaja Munde, and state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule.

A senior party functionary said that the core group decided to identify the seats that BJP can claim during the seat-sharing arrangement with Shiv Sena and NCP. During the 2019 elections, BJP had won 106 seats so it was decided to analyse these seats as well as a few more. There was unanimity that the BJP, Shiv Sena, and NCP will have to collectively fight the upcoming assembly election to retain power, especially after the dismal performance in the Lok Sabha elections.

‘’BJP is going to prepare a blueprint for the assembly elections. On this basis, the number of seats, selection of candidates, and the poll campaign strategy will be determined. Another meeting of the core committee will soon take place as yesterday’s was a preliminary one especially after the state leaders recently met the union home minister Amit Shah,’’ said another party functionary.

Moreover, the core committee also discussed the party’s strategy for the state council election scheduled for ugly 12. In view of its present strength of 103 legislators and 8 legislators belonging to smaller parties and independents, the party’s five nominees can be elected with the quota of 23 votes. The committee will shortlist about 10 names which will be forwarded to the central leadership.