Mumbai: The 25-year-long saffron alliance between the Shiv Sena and BJP staggered on shaky ground as the Sena rejected the latter’s ultimatum to decide on the seat-sharing agreement for the Maharashtra state assembly elections or be ready for a break-up.
Though elections are scheduled on October 15 and political parties would barely have enough days for campaigning, the Sena has hardened its stand, stressing that it will continue to be the senior partner in Maharashtra where its leader will become the chief minister.
“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,” said party spokesman and MP Sanjay Raut. Shiv Sena had been in politics even before BJP was born, he added. “It doesn’t matter whether there is an alliance or not.”
Raut said a meeting of the party’s executive will be held on September 21 which will be attended by all MPs and MLAs where Sena President Uddhav Thackeray will announce the final decision on alliance with BJP. A meeting of the Sena’s core committee held on Thursday night authorised Uddhav to decide on the alliance keeping in mind the “prestige of Maharashtra, self-respect of the party and Balasahaeb Thackeray’s principles.”
The BJP has been trying to get a bigger seat share from the 2009 formula when it held 119 and the Sena 169 seats of the 288-seat assembly. It has maintained that both should share 135 seats each and the rest of the 18 seats be distributed between smaller allies. But an adamant Sena has refused and is even expecting the BJP to share at least around 10 seats for the allies — an offer that is unacceptable to the BJP.
BJP national president, Amit Shah, whilst on a one-day tour of Maharashtra on Thursday, remarked, “We have come two steps forward. Now they (Sena) too should come two steps forward. We want ‘samadhan’ (seat-sharing agreement) with ‘samman’ (self-respect).” At meetings in Ahmednagar, Pune and Kolhapur, Shah spoke about the need to install a BJP government in Maharashtra and made no mention of the Sena. In Pune, he said, “I appeal to the people of the state to keep faith in Narendra Modi’s leadership.”
It is obvious that both parties may not be able to fight their polls on their own, especially the BJP which does not have that many candidates to contest the polls. Both have that tacit knowledge that if they parted ways, it would be the ruling coalition of Congress and Nationalist Congress Party as well as Raj Thackeray Maharashtra Navnirman Sena that would benefit from the division of saffron votes.
