BJP, Shiv Sena hold talks to salvage alliance

Having blown hot and cold through the day, Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders finally sat down for talks on Friday evening after which they gave indications that a seat-sharing deal would be clinched for the October 15 Maharashtra assembly polls and the alliance salvaged.

Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray kept himself away from talks for which he deputed his son and Yuva Sena chief Aaditya and Sena leader in the state assembly Subhash Desai, who met BJP's Maharashtra election in-charge O P Mathur.

"There will be differences in any alliance. Both are showing no egos... we want to take the alliance ahead," Aaditya Thackeray told reporters after the meeting, the first in about a week with the BJP leadership.

"How to take the alliance forward will be discussed. The Sena is looking at protecting the future of Maharashtra," he said.

State BJP president Devendra Fadnavis said his party had given a proposal to the Shiv Sena on distribution of seats and hoped there would be a positive response to it.

"Nobody wants to break the alliance. We have given a proposal and are hoping to get an appropriate and positive response," he said.

Maintaining that the ball was now in Sena's court, Mathur said, "They came to discuss... we have given our proposal and it is now for them to decide."

The negotiations followed a core committee meeting of the state BJP where it was decided that a fresh proposal be sent to the Sena on seat sharing.

There were reports that the Shiv Sena had offered the BJP 119 seats with a rider that it also accommodate smaller allies of 'Mahayuti', a rainbow alliance including smaller parties like Republican Party of India-A and Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, in its quota.      

Shiv Sena had earlier rejected BJP's proposal that the two major allies of 'Mahayuti' contest 135 seats each and leave the rest for smaller partners.

The Sena had contested 169 and the BJP 119 of the 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra in 2009.

Though the contents of the BJP's proposal were not known, the party had after its core committee meeting said it wanted to swap seats that Sena had not won in years.

"We will send a proposal to the Sena on the number of seats we want to contest. There are 59 seats where the Sena didn't win in the last 25 years and 19 where BJP didn't win. We want the Sena to consider this fact. We want discussion on each seat," former state BJP president Sudhir Mungantiwar told reporters after the meeting.

"We have been hearing from the media that the Sena has offered us the same 119 seats we contested in 2009 polls. We will not commit such a mistake of adopting a via media to convey our proposal and send it directly to Sena," he said.

Tough posturing by both parties preceded the evening talks even though they expressed their desire for the alliance to continue "but not at the cost of self-respect".

The Shiv Sena, which had on Thursday rejected the BJP's reported 'ultimatum' to finalise a seat-sharing pact or be ready to part ways, declared it will continue to be the senior partner in Maharashtra where its leader will become the chief minister, a major bone of contention between the two oldest National Democratic Alliance allies.

"In Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena is the party which gives (seats) and not the one that asks (for seats). It was a bigger party in the state and will remain so.

"The Shiv Sena has been in Maharashtra politics even before the BJP was born. It doesn't matter whether there is an alliance or not. The chief minister will be from the Shiv Sena," party spokesman and MP Sanjay Raut said.

BJP president Amit Shah had said at a public rally in Maharashtra on Thursday that the next government in Maharashtra will be formed by his party.

Raut said a meeting of the party's executive has been called on September 21 which will be attended by all MPs and MLAs where Sena president Uddhav Thackeray will announce the final decision on alliance with the BJP.

Image: File photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray. Photograph: Courtesy: narendramodi.in