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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  BJP declines Shiv Sena’s seat-sharing proposal
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BJP declines Shiv Sena’s seat-sharing proposal

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray keeps himself away from talks

A file photo of BJP supporters. Photo: Ramesh Pathania/MintPremium
A file photo of BJP supporters. Photo: Ramesh Pathania/Mint

Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday spurned its partner Shiv Sena’s proposal for seat-sharing in next month’s Maharashtra state assembly elections, leaving the continuation of their 25-year-old alliance in doubt.

The Shiv Sena has proposed that they stick to the 2009 seat-sharing formula, under which the BJP contested 119 and Sena contested 169 of the 288 seats in the state assembly. The BJP wants its share to increase this time.

“I would like to clarify that Sena’s so-called formula is not acceptable to us," former state BJP president Sudhir Mungantiwar said at a media briefing early on Friday. “We will approach Sena leadership with our proposal."

Late on Friday, leaders of both parties held a meeting, after which they gave indications that a seat-sharing deal would be clinched for the 15 October Maharashtra assembly polls and the alliance salvaged.

Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray kept himself away from talks and deputed his son and Yuva Sena chief Aditya and Sena leader in the state assembly Subhash Desai, who met BJP’s Maharashtra election incharge O.P. Mathur.

On Thursday, after a meeting between Thackeray and other party leaders, the Sena told the BJP that both parties should contest as per 2009 formula and each party should leave some seats from its quota to smaller parties in the Mahayuti, or grand alliance.

The BJP had earlier proposed that the two allies should share 135 seats each and leave the rest to smaller parties like the Republican Party of India (Ramdas Athavale faction), Swabhimani Party, Rashtriya Samaj Party and Shivasangram Party.

Buoyant after its success in the recent Lok Sabha elections, in which it won a clear majority on its own, becoming the first party to do so since 1984, the BJP is not ready to play the role of a junior partner in Maharashtra any longer.

“Both BJP and Sena have made the seat-sharing talks a public spectacle and both will be punished for this by voters and their cadres," said Prakash Akolkar, political editor of Marathi newspaper Sakal.

There are 59 seats in Maharashtra the Sena hasn’t won in the last 25 years and 19 seats the BJP hasn’t won.

“We want Sena to consider this fact," Mungantiwar said. “We want the alliance to continue. But it should not be at the cost of self-respect. We want a resolution while keeping intact our pride."

“In the past, we did not object when Sena backed Pratibha Patil’s candidature for President and later that of Pranab Mukherjee. Sena had backed Sharad Pawar for PM post also. We maintained restraint to ensure that our old alliance with Sena did not break," Mungantiwar said.

Leader of opposition in the state assembly Eknath Khadse said, “Earlier BJP used to contest 32 and Sena 16 of the total 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. We later gave six seats to them with the aim of keeping the alliance intact."

PTI contributed to this story.

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Published: 19 Sep 2014, 05:50 PM IST
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