As senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Amit Shah gave the party’s rank a pep talk on how to win a majority for the Mahayuti in the upcoming Assembly elections, his meeting with CM Eknath Shinde and DyCM Ajit Pawar late on Tuesday night happened amid information that the BJP is all set to keep 155-160 out of 288 seats for itself, with the rest to be shared by allies Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party.

A very senior BJP leader confirmed on the condition of anonymity to mid-day the number of seats (155-160) the party would contest. A larger chunk of the remaining seats is expected to go to the Shinde Sena, which along with NCP has been demanding more than 80 seats. Added to the BJP’s numbers, those sought by Sena and NCP exceed the Assembly’s available strength of 288. The number of seats to be distributed between Shinde and Pawar could not be confirmed, though a leader in the know said Shinde was likely to get about twice Pawar's share.