Shah’s Mumbai schedule leaves out Sena

Eyebrows are being raised about the fact that BJP President Amit Shah’s proposed visit to Mumbai does not include in its schedule a meeting with leaders of the Shiv Sena, the party’s alliance partner in Maharashtra.

This will be Mr. Shah’s first visit to the city after taking over as BJP president. Ostensibly, he is going for ‘Ganapati darshan’ during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival, but talks on seat sharing with smaller alliance partners for the upcoming Assembly polls is definitely on the cards.

There is discomfort on the seat-sharing issue between the Shiv Sena and the BJP, as there are five alliance partners in the ‘Mahayuti’ or grand alliance with whom the BJP has to share seats. Having won 23 of the 48 seats in the Lok Sabha elections in the State, the party is in an upbeat mood. The Shiv Sena had won 18 seats.

The BJP-Shiv Sena alliance added four smaller parties to the partnership including Ramdas Athawale-led Republican Party of India (RPI-A), the Raju Shetty’s Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS), Mahadev Jankar’s Rashtriya Samaj Paksha and Vinayak Mete’s Shiv Sangram. All these parties have a sizeable presence in various communities.

The traditional seat-sharing formula of 117 and 171 between the BJP and the Shiv Sena respectively in a house of 288 members will come under stress as all the smaller alliance partners are seeking a large share of the seats. BJP sources, however, indicated that no more than 20 seats could be shared with the new entrants to the alliance, but the tussle between the BJP and the Shiv Sena is about who will let go of how many seats.

Recently, Mr. Athawale, after a meeting with Mr. Shah in New Delhi, told

The Hindu that he had submitted a list of 12 candidates to the BJP chief. The Dalit leader expects the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance to give his party six or seven seats. He has also demanded the post of a Governor and a berth in the Union Cabinet.

Leaders of smaller parties are worried that delay in the seat-sharing formula will hurt their chances at the hustings. However, first the BJP and the Shiv Sena have to come to an understanding on how many seats each is willing to give away to the smaller parties.