Setting itself on a confrontation path with its oldest ally, the BJP on Thursday gave the Shiv Sena an ultimatum to agree on a seat-sharing formula for the coming Assembly elections or face a breakdown of the alliance.
Having jacked up its demand for contesting 135 of the 288 seats, which has been rejected by the Shiv Sena, senior BJP leaders have communicated to Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to decide by this evening whether his party is willing to conform to a “mutual and respectable” seat-sharing formula.
The alliance partners need to wrap up talks quickly, as just 28 days remain for Assembly elections in Maharashtra.
Today’s ultimatum has come after a major brainstorming session of the BJP core group in Mumbai last night which was attended by leaders including BJP chief Amit Shah, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, General Secretary in charge of Maharashtra and Om Mathur, the BJP’s State election in charge, and State leaders.
The core group meeting is also understood to have discussed a Plan B in case the BJP has to go it alone.
Top BJP sources said the party is upset that the Shiv Sena, an ally of 25 years, has not given any response to the proposal sent by it on the higher number of seats it wants to contest in the coming elections. In the 2009 elections, the BJP had contested 119 and the Sena 169 seats. However, this time the alliance “Mahayuti” has been broad-based with the inclusion of four more parties — RPI (Athawle), Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, Swabhimani Shetkari Paksha and Loksangram.
The party is particularly peeved that Thackeray has not responded to or was not in communication with the BJP leadership ever since the demand for 135 seats was put forth to him. In fact, without responding to the BJP’s demand directly, he went public earlier this week on rejecting it.
Congress-NCP talksThe Congress and its ally NCP are also facing a similar situation, with the NCP demanding more seats from the former.
NCP spokesperson Nawab Mallik told media persons that after the August 20 meeting between party supremo Sharad Pawar and senior Congress leader AK Anthony, there have been no formal meetings on seat sharing. “We are waiting for an invite from them,” he said.