The Shiv Sena has decided to contest the 2019 general and assembly elections alone, breaking its alliance with the BJP.
The decision was taken in the party's national executive meeting on Tuesday. Senior party leader Sanjay Raut had moved a resolution in this regard.
Meanwhile, Aditya Thackeray has been named member of Shiv Sena's national executive.
Raut said the BJP had been demoralising the party for the last three years.
The resolution was passed unanimously in the party's national executive meet in Mumbai.
"I moved the resolution for the Shiv Sena to fight the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls on its own in 2019," Raut said.
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He said the party will win at least 25 Lok Sabha seats (out of a total 48 in Maharashtra) and 125 Assembly seats (out of a total 288) in the state.
"The BJP allied with the Sena in the name of Hindutva and the Sena kept patience for Hindutva. However, the BJP in the last three years has been demoralising the Sena and using power to do so," Raut said.
Senior Sena leaders backed Raut's resolution.
The Shiv Sena is holding internal polls to elect its party president and other functionaries on Tuesday, the birth anniversary of its founder Bal Thackeray.
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Sena president Uddhav Thackeray is set to be re-elected as there is no other nomination for the post, party sources earlier said.
A meeting of senior Sena leaders was held at Thackeray's 'Matoshree' bungalow in suburban Bandra on Monday to discuss the internal polls.
This comes days after Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray had said the time was ripe to take a final decision on whether to stay or not to stay in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
"Time for a final decision has come. We are here to serve the people and will continue doing that," he said.
Replying to questions on whether he planned to give an ultimatum to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Thackeray had said, "We don't give ultimatums to anyone. We take a decision whenever we think so."
Thackeray had told media that the recently announced GST Council decision to lower tax rates on 27 products has been done with an eye on the Gujarat election.
Changes announced by GST Council are not Diwali gift, more changes are required, Thackeray said.
The Shiv Sena's three-year relationship with the Maharashtra government has been an on again off again one.
Although both contested the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly polls separately, but they came together as the BJP fell short of 22 votes to run the state government on the basis of a majority.
(With agency inputs)
