The Bharatiya Janata Party and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena reached a seat-sharing deal for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation polls on Monday, a day before the deadline for filing nomination papers closes on December 30.
As per the deal, the BJP will contest 137 seats while the Shiv Sena 90. Some of the seats have been allocated to their alliance partners.
The seat-sharing agreement was announced by Mumbai BJP president Amit Satam late on Monday. He said candidates of both parties would file their nominations on Tuesday.
The BJP has already released its first list of 70 candidates, with the party's state media chief, Navnath Ban, 38, being the youngest among the contestants. Ban will contest from ward number 135 in Shivajinaa.
Elections to 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra, including Mumbai, will be held on January 15, and votes will be counted the next day.
Ajit Pawar's NCP, a major constituent of the ruling Mahayuti, has decided to go solo in Mumbai and announced 64 candidates so far.
A total of 357 nomination papers were filed on the penultimate day for filing of nominations on Monday, taking the cumulative tally to 401 so far.
In the 2017 elections, the BJP had won 82 seats, two seats behind its then estranged ally, Shiv Sena (undivided), while the opposition Congress was reduced to 31 seats.
The NCP (undivided) and Raj Thackeray's MNS managed to win 9 and 7 seats, respectively.
