Alliance in trouble: BJP rejects Sena's 155-125 formula

A day after the ice was broken, Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders on Saturday held talks to end the tangle over seat-sharing for Maharashtra Assembly polls but failed to reach a consensus with BJP rejecting Sena's formula offering it 125 seats to contest and instead upped its ante by suggesting a new proposal.

BJP state unit chief Devendra Fadnavis met Sena president Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai on Saturday night and informed him about the state BJP core committee's decision on Sena's proposal regarding seat-sharing. He also submitted a fresh proposal to Sena on seat allocation.

As per the proposal forwarded by Shiv Sena earlier, it wants to contest 155 seats, leaving 125 for BJP, while the remaining of state's 288 seats would go to the smaller allies.

Fadnavis drove to Thackeray's residence Matoshree in suburban Bandra and discussed the current deadlock over seat sharing with the Sena chief.

"I told Uddhavji that Sena's proposal on quantum of seat sharing is not acceptable to us. We will wait for the Sena's reaction. Our core committee feels that if we accept the Sena's proposal on seat sharing, we will be left fighting for even a lesser number of seats than what we had fought during the last elections," Fadnavis told reporters outside Matoshree after the meeting.

"During the meeting, I submitted a fresh proposal on the seat sharing formula as discussed in our core committee meeting. I sincerely hope that the Sena agrees to this proposal and ends the deadlock," Fadnavis said without elaborating further.

After days of frosty silence, the Shiv Sena chief had on Friday night sent his 24-year-old son Aditya Thackeray and senior leader Subhash Desai for talks with BJP's Maharashtra election incharge O P Mathur and then sent a seat-sharing formula to the ally.

Shiv Sena had earlier said a decision on the alliance may be taken on Sunday.

"Uddhavji has been authorised by the party to take a call on the alliance. Shiv Sena executive committee is meeting on Sunday and an announcement is likely to be made," Sena spokesman and MP Sanjay Raut said earlier in the day.

State BJP core committee members today considered the proposal holding two rounds of meetings where Mathur and party general secretary incharge of Maharashtra Rajiv Pratap Rudy were present. Subhash Desai also held talks with state BJP president Devendra Fadnavis.

September 27 is the deadline for filing of nominations for the October 15 polls.