Mumbai, October 16: Despite exit polls tipping the ruling Congress in Maharashtra to emerge as the single largest party, the Opposition Shiv Sena-BJP alliance is busy wooing rebels and independents having winning probability, according to BJP sources.
“Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray, Subhash Desai, BJP general secretary Gopinath Munde and state BJP president Nitin Gadkari met yesterday to discuss the post-poll strategy of the alliance,” a source said.
A list of 22-24 probable winning independent candidates was finalised in the meeting and the leaders would talk to them personally, the source said.
According to the party’s estimates, the saffron combine expects to get around 135 seats, 10 short of the magic figure of 145 in the 288-member state assembly and the support of 20-25 candidates may prove handy, he added
–Agencies