Mumbai: The talks between the Shiv Sena and the BJP over an alliance for the municipal elections made a little headway on Wednesday. Sources said the parties are stuck to a 50:50 formula, with the BJP wishing to contest 115 of the total seats in the corporation, while the Sena refusing it to allot the numbers.
“We have agreed to continue our dialogue and share our proposals (of seats we wish to contest) over the next meetings,” senior BJP leader Ashish Shelar told The Hindu .
In the previous meeting, the BJP had stressed on a ‘transparent’ corporation as one of the conditions for the alliance. But the second meeting on Thursday did not get stuck on that, sources present in the meeting said.
“The first meeting was about how we (BJP) want a cartel-free corporation, transparent tender conditions, and global bids for civic projects. These were our conditions. And why should those not be the case since they (Sena) have looted the corporation for so long,” said a senior BJP minister.
Sources said the two sides have not been ‘honest’ in what they want from the alliance. “The two (sides) are not being honest to each other the way they are carrying out the negotiations,” said a BJP MLA. Following the meeting, a senior Sena leader said they just took a review of the BJP demands. “We took a review of the seats from Mulund to Dahisar, and are likely to exchange a list soon. Sena chief Uddhavji (Thackeray) and Chief Minister (Devendra Fadnavis) will take a final call,” said Sena leader Anil Desai.
