At a time when smaller constituents of the “Mahayuti” are already demanding bigger slice of the total 288 seats on offer in Maharashtra, lok Janshakti Party leader Ramvilas Paswan on Thursday announced that his party would join the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance-led grand alliance in the forthcoming State Assembly polls.
Addressing the media here, Paswan said: “The lJP became a part of the “Mahayuti” (grand alliance) the moment it joined the NDA. We in fact campaigned for Nitin Gadkari in Nagpur, and he won by over three lakh votes. The number of seats that we will get to contest does not really matter, but we would like to be a part of the “Mahayuti” for the polls”.
Queried if his party had been inducted into the “Mahayuti”, Paswan said: “Even if we do not get any seat to contest, we will remain part of the alliance”.
If lJP is inducted into the “Mahayuti”, it will be the second Dalit party alongside Ramdas Athawale’s RPI in the Sena-BJP alliance-led grand alliance.
However, Paswan’s statement has taken by the Sena-BJP leaders by surprise. “The lJP has not been inducted into the “Mahayuti”. As far as my knowledge goes, our leaders at the state level have not held any talks with Paswan in this regard,” a senior state BJP functionary said.
Paswan’s statement is bound to spark some debate within the five-party grand alliance — comprising Shiv Sena, BJP, RPI (A), Raju Shetty-led Swabhimani Paksha and the Mahadeo Jankar-led Rashtriya Samaj Paksha.
In the previous Assembly elections, the Shiv Sena and BJP had – out of the total 288 seats -- contested 171 and 117 seats respectively. However, the BJP has this time around demanded at least 15 more seats than its earlier share of 117, based on its spectacular performance in the lok Sabha polls in the state.
In the lS polls (involving a total of 48 seats in the state), the BJP won 23 of the 26 seats it contested, while the Shiv Sena won 18 of 22 it contested and another “Maha-Yuti” constituent Swabhimani Paksha, which was given two seats in the lok Sabha and won one seat.
Similarly, the Ramdas Athawale-led RPI, which had initially staked claim for 20 seats, has scaled up its demand to 59 seats, while the Swabhimani Paksha is rooting for 38 seats, Mahadev Jankar-led Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP) has demanded 30 seats.
The Vinayak Mete-led Shiv Sangram, which wants to be the sixth constituent of the “Maha-Yuti”, has asked for 15 seats.
The “Maha-yuti” leaders have so far held three rounds seat-sharing talks among them.
On July 28 when the grand alliance leaders held their second round of seat-sharing talks, aharashtra BJP president Devendra Fadnavis had said that the “Maha-Yuti” would finalise its sea-sharing tie-up by August 16.
Now, with the lJP president having thrown its hat into the ring, the “Maha-Yuti” leaders will have to take a call as to whether the Ramvilas Paswn-led party could be accommodated within the grand alliance and if yes, they will have to decide as to how many seats they can to the new constituent.