The Shiv Sena faction led by Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena on Wednesday announced an alliance for the municipal elections in the state.

Raj Thackeray said that they had formed an alliance “for Maharashtra” and that the state was “bigger than any feud”.

Raj Thackeray quit the undivided Shiv Sena in 2005 and formed the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena a year later. The parties had been political rivals for the past two decades.

On Wednesday, the two leaders did not specify how many civic wards in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation their parties would contest as part of the seat-sharing arrangement. It was unclear if their alliance would cover other municipal bodies.

Advertisement

The municipal polls in 29 cities will take place on January 15 and the votes will be counted a day later. The cities include Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Thane, Navi Mumbai and Nashik.

The process of filing nominations began on Tuesday and will conclude on December 30.

The Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi comprising the Uddhav Sena, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party faction led by Sharad Pawar have not announced their seat-sharing plan yet.

The state’s ruling Mahayuti coalition has also not announced its plan. It comprises the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction and the Nationalist Congress Party group led by Ajit Pawar.

Advertisement

In July, at their first joint rally in nearly 20 years, Uddhav Thackeray said that he and his cousin had “come together to stay together”.

They had organised the rally to protest against the state government’s proposal to teach Hindi as the third language to students from Class 1 to Class 5 in Marathi and English medium schools. After the government withdrew the resolution, the two parties had marked the event as a “victory rally”.

The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief had said at the time that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had “managed to do what Balasaheb Thackeray could not – bring myself and Uddhav together”.