While the election commission is all set to issue the notification for Maharashtra assembly elections on Saturday; bickering over seats continues not only amongst the ruling Congress-NCP alliance but also the opposition parties BJP and the Shiv Sena.

After a series of meetings all day long, both the BJP and the Shiv Sena have agreed that the 25 year old alliance in Maharashtra will remain intact.

Speaking to reporters after one such meeting, Shiv Sena leader Aditya Thackeray said that the parties will contest the October 15 assembly polls with a single minded focus on creating a Congress free Maharashtra.

He informed that senior BJP and Shiv Sena leaders will hold a late night meeting on Friday to decide the seat sharing formula.

Apart from maintaining self-respect of both the parties, the final discussions will revolve around 59 seats that the Shiv Sena has never won and about 19 seats that the BJP has failed to win in the past.

On the other hand, the Congress and NCP are more or less prepared to fight it alone on all the 288 seats. There seems to be absolutely no communication between the two parties with the Sharad Pawar led NCP still waiting to get a favourable proposal from the Congress.

However, leaders from both the parties have signalled preparation and willingness for contesting on all the 288 seats.

Since the week long process for filing nominations will begin on Saturday, a final decision is expected latest by Sunday.