BJP-Sena alliance on verge of collapse

The 25-year-old alliance between the BJP and the Shiv Sena was on the verge of collapse on Friday with both parties adopting a tough stance on the issue of seat-sharing for the October 15 State Assembly elections, party officials said.

Both the warring partners held a series of crucial meetings during the day to take a final call on continuing the alliance.

“It’s on the verge of breaking — only a formal announcement is awaited,” said a senior State BJP leader, requesting anonymity.

However, the party’s core committee meeting officially decided to keep up the alliance intact. In the draft proposal it asked the Shiv Sena to give more seats for the sake of amity between the two parties.

In its fresh seat-sharing proposal to the Shiv Sena, the BJP said that 59 seats that have never been won by the Sena in the previous 25 years should be allotted to the BJP.

Member of the committee and Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Assembly Eknath Khadase told media persons that for the sake of the alliance, the BJP had sacrificed seven Parliament seats to the Shiv Sena over the past 25 years. The Shiv Sena should now reciprocate for the Assembly elections, he said.

Senior BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar said the party has not given any deadline to the Shiv Sena for accepting the proposal but its reply should come soon. “We hope that Sena’s reply comes before filing of the nomination forms for the Elections,” he said. “Our relations are old therefore the seat sharing should be done with samadhan (satisfaction) and samman (honour),” he said.

The crux of the issue is primarily seat-sharing, besides projecting Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray as the chief ministerial candidate. The BJP is demanding both parties contest 135 seats each with the remaining 18 in the house of 288 being allotted to other smaller alliance partners.

The Shiv Sena’s latest offer is 119 seats to the BJP, including the share of the other smaller partners, which the BJP rejected outright.

The Sena on Friday hardened its stance further. “In Maharashtra, Shiv Sena is the party which gives (seats) and not the one that asks (for seats). It was a bigger party in the State and will remain so,” party spokesman and MP Sanjay Raut said.

“Shiv Sena had been in Maharashtra politics even before BJP was born. It doesn’t matter whether there is an alliance or not. The Chief Minister will be from Shiv Sena,” he added.

A meeting of the party's executive committee has been called on Sunday, Raut said.

After BJP president Amit Shah gave indications in his public rallies in the State that the “BJP will form the next government” without mentioning its allies, the party reportedly served a 24-hour ‘ultimatum’, which the Sena dismissed Thursday night. The Sena also resolved after an emergency meeting that any final decision on the issue would be left to Uddhav’s discretion.

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