With barely 72 hours left before nominations close for the Maharashtra Assembly polls, the BJP-Shiv Sena seat-sharing has hit a new road block with the smaller allies of the `Mahayuti’ threatening to call it quits over raw deal offered to them.
The only consolation for the smaller parties is that the BJP threw on Wednesday its weight behind the four disgruntled allies stressing that it was in no mood to fight the election without them.
Both BJP Maharashtra in-charge Rajiv Pratp Rudy and BJP State president Devendra Fadnavis said that the allies had stood by them during the Lok Sabha elections. “We have a strong understanding with them. Not under any condition can we leave them, no formula without them is acceptable,” Mr. Rudy said.
The Sena on its part while conceding that the smaller parties need to be on board said it was the BJP that needed to concede more seats to keep in the fold.
On Tuesday the Sena and the BJP had offered only seven seats to the four other allies. Following a day of continuous meetings, the new formula which is likely to finalised gives 150 seats to the Sena, 125 to the BJP and 13 to other four allies.
In the 2009 assembly election, the Sena had contested 169 seats in contrast to BJP’s 119. Sena’s contention is that to accommodate the new allies it had agreed to contest 151 seats.
Both the Sena and the BJP are keen on steering away from the blame of causing a crack in the alliance till the last moment.
Mr. Fadnavis said the BJP was trying its best to get more space for the allies. “It’s our responsibility to keep them with us,” he said.
“Shiv Sena cannot contest anything less than 150 seats. The responsibility of keeping together the Mahayuti is with the BJP,” senior Sena leader Ramdas Kadam said.
After a late night meeting on Tuesday with the larger partners--the four allies, Ramadas Athwale’s RPI-A, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghtana of MP Raju Shetty, the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha and the Shivsangram Sanghatana--threatened to walk out of the alliance alleging “betrayal” and “insult.”
Excluding RPI-A, these allies met on Wednesday morning to discuss their course of action. They later held meetings with both the BJP and the Sena.
“They (BJP-Sena) have backstabbed us. They took us for granted and insulted like never before,” said Sadabhau Khot of SSS. A final call on the fate of the Mahayuti this could be taken on Thursday as talks among between the allies continued on Wednesday night.
