Hours after threatening to quit the ‘Mahayuti’ over ‘paltry’ allocation of seats for the Maharashtra Assembly polls, three smaller partners in the Shiv Sena-BJP-led alliance indicated they would stay on, following an assurance from Uddhav Thackeray that they will be given a “respectable” number of seats.
The original alliance or Mahyuti was formed by the BJP and Shiv Sena along with the Republican Party of India (A) led by Ramdas Athawale, farmer leader Raju Shetti's Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, Shiv Sangram of Vinayak Mete and Mahadeo Jankar’s Rashtriya Samaj Party.
“Our meeting with Uddhavji was very successful. We have proposed to him a formula that can make every party happy. We have asked him to keep 150 seats for Shiv Sena, leaving 120 for BJP and we will be satisfied with 18 seats. We are going to meet BJP leaders now and hope this logjam will be sorted out today,” Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghathana leader and Lok Sabha MP Shetti told reporters on Wednesday after his meeting with Uddhav, who heads the Shiv Sena.
Mete of Shiv Sangram, who was also present during the meeting, said junior partners in the alliance will get more than seven seats. “We met Uddhavji and other leaders of the Sena. We have reworked a new formula which we will now discuss with BJP leaders today. Under the new formula smaller parties will be getting more than seven seats to contest,” he said.
Jankar of the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha said: “We are optimistic now. The Mahayuti is on its way to becoming a huge success.”
Deeply perturbed by a proposed reduction in seats, the smaller parties of the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance had said they were considering breaking away and forming new alliances.
On Wednesday, the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, Shiv Sangram and Rashtriya Samaj Party were mulling a separate course, while the Republican Party of India (A) remained undecided.
Sources indicated that these parties were annoyed with Tuesday’s decision on seat sharing, in which it was decided that the BJP would contest 130 seats, the Shiv Sena 151 and only seven seats would be left for the four parties.
Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana deputy president Sadabhau Khot told media persons on Wednesday in a press conference here that the party had thought that if it joined the BJP and Shiv Sena then it would be able to solve the problems of the people of the State, but “both these parties are more keen to grab power than work for people’s welfare.”
An alliance of the three parties is on the anvil and a list of candidates could be announced late evening, he added.
Rashtriya Samaj Party president Mahadeo Jankar had told BusinessLine in an interview on Monday that Mahayuti allies don’t want the Congress and the NCP back in power, but the political arrangement to engineer such a victory is lacking, as the smaller allies are being treated unfairly.
The smaller parties had demanded 88 seats out of 288 from the BJP-Shiv Sena, but over the period of one month the number has fallen drastically, he said.
Shetti of the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana had said that giving seven seats to four parties was an ‘insult’ to them, which will not be accepted. “If you can’t give us enough seats (to contest), at least make our leader the chief minister,” he had said in an apparent dig at the Sena over its proposal.
RPI(A) chief Athawale was also reportedly miffed with the new seat-sharing proposal and had left the meet midway last night.
As the smaller partners threatened to walk out of the alliance accusing the Sena and BJP leaders of “backstabbing” them, State BJP president Devendra Fadnavis said: “Our party has decided to contest the polls with all our alliance partners. They joined us before the Lok Sabha polls, reposing trust in us. They have to stay with us, we want them to stay with us and we are trying to see to it that they stay with us.”
Swamy praises UddhavMeanwhile, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy described Uddhav Thackeray as ‘modest’. “He is a modest man, he is a very able, educated person, very modern. We think very highly of him, if he becomes the CM,” Swamy said.