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With the deadline for filing nomination papers coming to an end in four days, the BJP and the Shiv Sena appear to have hammered out a last minute seat-sharing formula for the Assembly elections in Maharashtra.
On Tuesday morning, it was decided at a joint meeting of the two parties that the BJP will contest 130 seats.
The Shiv Sena will keep 151 seats and the balance seven seats will be split between the four smaller alliance partners.
The smaller parties are the Republican Party of India (A) led by Ramdas Athawale, farmer leader Raju Shetty’s Swabhiman Shetkari Sanghatana, Shiv Sangram of Vinayak Mete and Mahadeo Jankar’s Rashtriya Samaj Party.
In the 2009 Assembly election, the Shiv Sena fought on 169 seats, while the BJP contested 119.
Addressing the media at an impromptu press conference, senior BJP leader Vinod Tawde said both the parties were keen to keep the 25-year-old alliance intact. A mutually acceptable formula has been worked out for the BJP and the Shiv Sena, and various proposals are being worked out for smaller allies, he said.
He added that talks with smaller allies are underway and that they are likely to conclude late evening.
Key meetingTo resolve the deadlock, Sena leaders, led by party spokesperson Sanjay Raut, senior leaders Subash Desai, Anil Desai and Sanjay Narwekar, met with State BJP leaders and BJP-in-charge of Maharashtra polls, OP Mathur.
On Sunday morning, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had offered a final proposal of 119 seats to the BJP, keeping 151 seats for his own party. Smaller alliance partners had been offered 18 seats.
In the last three days, a number of attempts were made to persuade the Sena to climb down from its position of 151 seats, but the party leadership was not willing to compromise.
As a result, the BJP was left with no choice but to claim an additional 11 seats from the quota of 18 seats that had reserved for the smaller allies.
A senior party BJP leader told BusinessLine that both the parties had a backup plan in the event of the crucial alliance (BJP-Shiv Sena) failing to materialise.
But it could have led to splitting of votes and the BJP missing the chance of forming a government in Maharashtra for at least another 10 years.
“In the BJP, nobody wants to miss the Modi wave,” the leader said.
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