"If Uddhav Thackeray has said the CM will be from the party, take it in writing, it will be from the Sena," asserted Raut.

Insisting that "no political meaning should be drawn" of his meeting with Pawar, the Rajya Sabha MP added that the Sena has the ability to arrange numbers to form government on its own, but it has not given any 'ultimatum' to the BJP.

Both the BJP and the Shiv Sena are locked in a bitter tussle over government formation in Maharashtra, with the Sena asking for 50-50 power sharing and rotational sharing of Chief Minister's post, but the BJP refusing to blink.

The Sena won 56 seats in the recent Assembly elections seven more than it had in the Assembly. The BJP won 105 seats, 17 less than its 2014 tally. Neither can form government on its own, but can comfortably do the same together. The magic number to form government is 145 in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly.