Less than 48 hours after the two saffron parties entered into an electoral alliance, senior Shiv Sena leader and Minister Ramdas Kadam on Wednesday created a stir in the State political circles, by asserting that his party would severe its ties with the BJP if the latter did not accept the Sena’s condition that the Chief Minister’s post should be shared in rotation between them if they returned to power in the State.
“At the seat-sharing talks held on Monday, the BJP had accepted Sena President Uddhav Thackeray’s condition that the two parties would share the Chief Minister’s post in rotation in the event of our returning to power in the State. This means that both the Sena and BJP would get the chief minister’s post for two and a half years each,” Kadam said, while talking to a Marathi television channel.
Kadam said that if the BJP failed to fulfill its promise, the Sena would have no other go but to break the alliance.
Alluding to an interview telecast on a regional television channel, Kadam said: “In an interview, I saw senior state BJP leader Chandrakant Patil saying that whichever of the two parties ( BJP and Sena) gets more number of seats in the Assembly polls, it will have its person in the chief minister’s saddle. Whatever Patil has said is wrong. I want chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to speak to BJP national president Amit Shah and clarify matters. Otherwise, there will be once again confusion and there is a possibility of a break-up in our alliance”.
“If the BJP does not accept our condition of rotational chief ministership, then we will tell our party president Uddhav Thackereay to break the alliance once again,” Kadam said.
It may be recalled that both the Sena and BJP leaders had not spoken about the understanding reached between them over the choice of the chief minister’s post. As a result, it was felt that both the parties had chosen to keep the issue of chief minister’s post open.
Dwelling upon the sharing of positions in the event of the saffron alliance government returning to power, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had said: “We are confident of returning to power both at the Centre and in the state. If we take charge of the office once again in Maharashtra, we will share power and positions equitably”.
Under the seat-sharing formula arrived at between the two saffron alliance partners, the BJP will contest 25 Lok Sabha seats, while the Shiv Sena will field candidates for the remaining 23 LS seats. In the State Assembly polls, the two parties will — after sparing some seats to other alliance constituents — contest equal number of seats.