The BJP has finalised its seat sharing formula with the Shiv Sena for the coming Lok Sabha elections and the Maharashtra Assembly elections, sources have told Zee Media. The BJP will contest a few seats more than the Sena in both elections, sources said, cementing its role as the senior alliance partner in the state.

Sources told Zee Media that the BJP would contest in 25 of Maharashtra's 48 Lok Sabha seats. The Shiv Sena has been allotted the remaining 23 seats, the sources said.

For the Assembly elections slated to be held later in the year, the BJP will contest in 145 of the 288 seats, with the Shiv Sena getting the remaining 143 seats, according to the sources.

There is yet no information on whether the BJP would accommodate its smaller NDA partners from its share of the seats.

The seat sharing formula also includes an agreement that the Sena would be allotted 6 to 7 seats that the BJP presently holds in the Maharashtra Assembly. The BJP sources said the Sena has no interest in Vidarbha, but is interested in BJP holdings in Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Nashik and Pune.

However, the Shiv Sena has denied reports that the two parties have finalised the seat sharing formula, and added that the authority to confirm any distribution formula lies with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.

The Shiv Sena has been smarting since the BJP demanded more seats during the seat distribution talks ahead of the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly elections. The BJP, emboldened by its strong showing the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, pushed hard.

The two long-time allies parted ways and contested on their own even as they remained partners at the Centre. The venture ended in a disastrous result from the Sena's point of view. The BJP won 123 seats with its smaller NDA partners, while the Shiv Sena managed only 63. The BJP was also helped by the breakdown of the long-term alliance between the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) ahead of the elections.

The Shiv Sena then agreed to support a BJP government with Devendra Fadnavis as Chief Minister, after the NCP offered to support a BJP government from the outside.

The Shiv Sena has since taken a strongly critical line against the BJP governments at both the Centre and in Mumbai, making it seem like an uneasy alliance between partners who have called each other a 'natural fit'. Those tensions could however again rise in the run-up to the polls, especially the Maharashtra Assembly election.