The strain between the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) escalated on Thursday night after the former decided it would offer only 119 seats to the BJP and keep 169 seats for itself.
The offer was made after a meeting between Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and senior party leaders in the evening, highly placed sources told The Hindu. “We will stick to the 2009 formula. Both of us can accommodate allies from our quota,” said a senior Shiv Sena leader.
The BJP has decided to reject the offer and has called a core committee meeting on Friday. “This offer is totally unacceptable. We asked for 135 seats,” said a senior BJP leader.
This means the Shiv Sena is unwilling to budge from the seat-sharing formula of 2009 despite the BJP's spectacular victory in the Lok Sabha elections.
In 2009, the Shiv Sena contested 169 seats and the BJP 119. After the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP proposed an equal share of seats. It suggested that both parties contest 135 seats and leave 18 seats to their smaller allies.
The Shiv Sena rejected the demand and talks between the allies came to a standstill last Sunday.
However, after the BJP’s reverses in the recent bypolls in several States, the Shiv Sena went on the offensive. “This is a fair offer. If the BJP does not want to accept it, it is up to them,” said a senior Shiv Sena leader.
Earlier in the day, BJP president Amit Shah put the onus of breaking the deadlock over seat-sharing on the Sena, and Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut retorted that the party “didn’t care for any ultimatum from the BJP.”
With September 27 being the last date for filing nominations, the BJP has scheduled a meeting of its Central Election Committee for Saturday and Sunday to announce its candidates for the Maharashtra and the Haryana elections. The party has already released its first list of 43 candidates for Haryana.
“The BJP will form the next government in Maharashtra,” Mr. Shah said during the BJP’s poll campaign in Kolhapur district on Thursday, pointedly excluding the Sena. “The BJP has taken two steps forward to resolve the seat-sharing deadlock. We urge the Shiv Sena to do the same and resolve the impasse.”
Whether it is a fallout of the recent by-election results in which the BJP fared poorly or a clash of egos, there has been no communication between the top party leadership for the past four or five days.
The BJP core group met in Delhi and later in Mumbai to decide its strategy for the alliance and a back-up plan to go it alone if it comes to that.
(With additional reporting by Shoumojit Banerjee, Gargi Parsai & Alok Deshpande)
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