'Oldest ally' Shiv Sena will stay with us: BJP

New Delhi: Maharashtra BJP chief Raosaheb Danve has asserted that its oldest ally, Shiv Sena, would remain with the party saying, "We were in an alliance for 25 years. Barring the last election, we have always been together."

"It is proved that NDA's both governments, one under Atal Bihari Vajpayee and another under Narendra Modi, are capable to hold on its allies. We are trying to keep the allies with us," he said further.

However, Sena president Uddhav Thackeray has announced that the party will fight upcoming Lok Sabha and state Assembly polls alone. Besides, Danve also declined to comment on whether the Sena would walk out of the National Democratic Alliance and the government.

Both the Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly elections are scheduled in 2019 and sounding the poll bugle, the saffron party is going to celebrate its 39th foundation day in the presence of the party president Amit Shah on April 6 in Mumbai. The party has planned a rally expected to be attended by around three lakh workers across Maharashtra.

Danve further said that the rally will be a part of the party's organisational activity and it should not be linked with its poll preparations. "We celebrate the foundation day every year. It is not right to say that we are sounding a poll bugle," he added.

The state party chief also said the party has changed its strategy in terms of the number of workers per polling booth so that it can reach to the maximum number of booths. "Earlier, it had 10 workers per youth. Now, the number has been raised to 25," he mentioned.

There are 92,000 polling booths in the state. The incumbent BJP so far has reached up to 83,000 booths. "Our government is working for the benefit of farmers, women, youth, Dalit, OBC and the tribes. That is why we reached to numero uno position from the fourth place," Danve also added.