Mumbai: Seat-sharing talks between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena got a sudden impetus as chief minister Devendra Fadnavis met Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray at the latter’s residence Matoshree at Bandra on Thursday. The meeting continued till late in the evening.

The chief minister had planned to tour the Buldha-na and Washim districts on Thursday. However, after visiting Buldhana, he cancelled the Washim district tour and returned to Mumbai. In the evening, he reached Uddhav’s residence along with revenue minister Chandrakant Patil to hold the seat-sharing talks.

The chief minister’s visit assumes significance as it was the BJP leaders who decided to reach out to Mr Thackeray for the alliance. According to BJP insiders, party chief Amit Shah had instructed that the final decision about the alliance be taken on Thursday only. Accordingly, the BJP leaders reached Matoshree to discuss the issue.

The future of the alliance will depend on how BJP tackles the Sena’s demand for chief ministership. Desperate for the top post, the Sena has put it forth as the main condition for forming an alliance with the BJP for the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls.

“The talks were positive. Sena have raised some issues related to farmers, common people and proper implementation of few scheme. We will sort them out by sitting together ” said Mr Fadnavis after the meeting.

Sena has staked claim to the chief minister’s post in lieu of its support to the Prime Minister’s post in New Delhi.

Senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said that if a BJP-led National Dem-ocratic Alliance (NDA) government was formed in New Delhi in 2019, NDA allies like Sena, Akali Dal and other parties would have a significant role to play. He added that all the allies of NDA were strong in their own states and if the BJP wanted to have an alliance with them at the Centre, the chief minister in the concerned state should be from that ally.

Sources in the Sena said that the party, irrespective of the numbers it got in the 2019 Assembly, would stake claim to the chief minister’s post. Sena wanted BJP to abdicate its claim to the chief minister’s post at any cost in lieu of its support to government formation in New Delhi.

However, state BJP chief spokesperson Madhav Bha-ndari said that finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar had already made clear the party's stand over the chief minister’s post. Speaking to the press earlier this week, Mr Mungantiwar stated that Mr Thackeray would not make such a demand.positive: Fadnavis.