The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hopes to finalise seat sharing arrangements with the Shiv Sena by September 22 or the upcoming weekend, ahead of the Assembly polls in Maharashtra, but is clear that the question of just who is the dominant partner has been settled in its favour.
Senior party sources told The Hindu that the alliance with the Shiv Sena, called the ‘Mahayuthi’, was very much on, but that the seats (number and specific areas) were still being hammered out between the two parties. Before the two parties had parted ways just before the 2014 Assembly (later coming together to be partners in the Devendra Fadnavis government), the seat-sharing arrangement was heavily loaded in favour of the Shiv Sena, which contested 169 seats, while the BJP contested 119 seats. By the time 2014 rolled around, the BJP, cresting on the Modi wave, wanted a renegotiation on a more realistic assessment of the ground situation. Talks broke down in October 2014, and the two parted ways. The BJP and the Shiv Sena came back together after a period of being apart.
‘Faced off’
“What is interesting, of course, is that out of the total 288 Assembly seats [one member is nominated to the Assembly, taking the total number to 289], the BJP and the Shiv Sena directly faced off against each other in 54 seats. The BJP won 32 of these seats and the Shiv Sena 22. So the question of who the dominant force in the Mahayuthi is, has been settled in the last elections,” said a senior BJP leader.
“This is when the BJP had fought only on 260 seats and the Sena on 280,” added the source.
The BJP had fought on 25 seats out of a total of 48 seats in the Lok Sabha polls, and the Sena at 23 seats. The BJP’s strike rate is better, too, with the party winning 23 of the seats; the Sena came in with 18 seats.
With all these numbers, the BJP is determined to settle the question of who can be seen as the big brother in the alliance in its favour, for some time to come.
