MUMBAI, JAN 8: Even as the Shiv Sena continues to be the Bharatiya Janata Party's electoral partner in the State, the former will contest a record number of 136 seats against the BJP in 17 states other than Maharashtra in the coming Lok Sabha elections.``Our alliance with the BJP is limited only to Maharashtra. In other states, it will not be a friendly fight as we are determined to win those seats,'' Chief Minister Manohar Joshi told media persons at the party office Shivalaya today. The party has requested the Election Commission to reserve the election symbol of `bow and arrow' for its candidates, Joshi said.Announcing that sitting Member of Parliament from Haryana Arvind Sharma had joined the Shiv Sena, Joshi said his party will contest 15 seats in Uttar Pradesh and 25 in Rajasthan where BJP is the ruling party. ``I will be visiting Sonepat (Haryana) on January 25 to campaign for Sharma,'' he said.He said the party will field 14 candidates in Orissa, five in Assam, 11 in Bihar, three in Kerala, six in Andhra Pradesh, five in Punjab, two in Delhi, 10 in Haryana, one in Dadra Nagar Haveli, four in Karnataka, 11 in Gujarat, five in Tamil Nadu, nine in Madhya Pradesh, three in Himachal Pradesh and seven in West Bengal.The first list of Sena candidates for Maharashtra, where the party is contesting 21 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats, will be announced by party supremo Balasaheb Thackeray tomorrow at the Sena Bhavan, Joshi said. The names of the candidates for other states will be announced at a later date.Joshi said that Thackeray will launch a state-wide election campaign from Kolhapur next week, accompanied by the Chief Minister, Uddhav and Raj Thackeray.The Chief Minister also denied the charge of Opposition leader Chhagan Bhujbal that his personal security and the police protection provided to his family members as well as at his official bungalow across Mantralaya has been withdrawn. There was merely some delay on the part of the policemen to reach his official residence, Joshi said.A remedy soughtMaharashtra Chief Minister Manohar Joshi today expressed resentment over the Election Commission's ban on providing medical assistance to the needy from the Chief Minister's fund till the mid-term polls were over.Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, Joshi said that an extremely limited amount ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 25,000, and in rare cases upto Rs 50,000, was given as medical assistance to ailing destitutes or those afflicted by major complications like kidney failure.``Sometimes the model code of conduct is taken to extreme ends,'' Joshi remarked, adding that the EC had given permission for providing such aid to the needy in the last Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.
