The saffron alliance partners on Friday night inched closer to a mutually acceptable seat-sharing arrangement between them for the October 15 Maharashtra Assembly elections, after Shiv Sena leaders held first round of talks on the BJP’s proposal for “redistribution” of 78 such seats that had not been won by either of the parties during the past 25 years.
The strained relations between the saffron alliance partners thawed after Sena’s youth wing president Aditya Thackeray deliberated with BJP’s election-in charge for Maharashtra Om Prakash Mathur and State party president Devendra Fadnavis in the evening on 78 seats’ “redistribution” proposal mooted by the latter. The BJP may forgo CM post in reciprocation.
With the saffron alliance leaders having covered considerable ground in their deliberations on the BJP’s fresh proposal, Sena’s president Uddhav Thackeray was scheduled to meet Mathur and Fadnavis later in the night for finalising the seat-sharing deal between the two parties.
Though they did not reveal as to what exactly transpired at the first round of talks on the BJP’s proposal, Subhash Desai said, “We have had a constructive round of talks with the BJP leaders. We are confident that a final seat-sharing formula will emerge during the final round of talks that Uddhavji will have with Mathur later in the night.”
Within a few hours after the BJP’s State core committee rejected the Sena’s “reported” offer of 119 seats and re-mooted its earlier proposal of “re-distribution” of 78 such seats (59 from the Sena quota and 19 from the BJP quota), the Shiv Sena responded favourably to the move and deputed Aditya Thackeray, Subhash Desai and Anil Desai for initial round talks with Mathur and Fadnavis.
“Both the Sena and the BJP are working in tandem towards making Maharashtra a Congress-free and a corruption-free State and ushering in development through saffron rule. Our aim is to carry forward the saffron alliance put in place by late Balasaheb Thackeray and late Pramod Mahajan. My effort is to take the alliance to the third generation. You will soon get to know as to what will be the final seat-sharing formula and other details later,” Aditya said.
Informed sources, meanwhile, said that the Sena and the BJP would likelihood re-distribute the “78 seats” between them equally. The seat-sharing formula that would emerge between the Sena and BJP would be something like of the order of 150:138. From the respective quota of seats allotted to them under the deal, the Sena and the BJP would give eight or nine seats (a total of 16 or 18 seats) to the four other constituents in the “Maha-Yuti” — TPI (A), Raju Shetty-led Swabhimani Paksha, the Mahadeo Jankar-led Rashtriya Samaj Paksha and Vinayajk Mete-led Shiv Sangram.
A back-of-the-envelope calculation reveals that the Shiv Sena and BJP would start the negotiations with 110 seats (169 minus 59 seats that the Sena had never won in the past) and 100 (119 minus 19 seats that the BJP had never won in the past) respectively as the base. When the equal number of “redistributable” seats (39+39) are added to the tally, the share of the Sena will go up to 149, while the BJP’s share will be 139.
As a face-saver to the Shiv Sena, which had earlier gone to town saying that it was working towards “Mission 150” in the sharing of seats, the BJP would forgo its one seat to the Sena, taking the latter’s final tally to 150 and its own final tally to 138. “We will accomplish our Mission-150 (in the seat-sharing deal),” Aditya said when asked about the final seat allotment tally of the Sena.
Though there was no confirmation as to whether there was unanimity between the saffron alliance partners on letting Shiv Sena project its president Uddhav Thackeray as the chief ministerial candidate, available indications suggested that the BJP had shown readiness to give up its claim on the CM’s post in the over-all interest of keeping the 25-year-old saffron alliance intact.
When asked about the contentious issue of Chief Minister’s post, Aditya said: “You all know the Shiv Sena announced its candidate. We have already begun our campaign on our chief ministerial candidate. More than who becomes the Chief Minister, Uddhavji wants to realise the dream that he has for Maharashtra. He wants to accomplish what he said. We as Shiv Sainiks will do towards realising his dream”.
Earlier in the day, the BJP’s State core committee rejected the Sena’s reported offer of 119 seats and came out with a proposal for “redistribution” of 78 such seats which had not been won by both the Sena and the BJP during the past 25 years.
Talking to mediapersons after his party core committee meeting, BJP’s former State president Sudhir Mungantiwar said: “From various sources, including the media, we have heard about the offer of 119 seats made by the BJP to us. The proposal is an old one. Today, there are 59 such seats that the Sena had never won during the last 25 years. Similarly, there are 19 such seats that the BJP had not won in the past. We would like these seats to be re-distributed, based on the current political situation in each of the constituencies. That’s why we are sending a proposal to the Shiv Sena for talks on the re-distribution of these seats”.
“We want the alliance to continue. But it should not be at the cost of self-respect. We want a resolution while keeping intact our pride,” Mungantiwar said.
Reminding that his party had ceded six lok Sabha seats to the Shiv Sena in the initial years of its alliance, senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse said: “Earlier the BJP used to contest 32 and Sena 16 of the total 48 lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. We later gave six more seats to them with the aim of keeping the alliance intact”.
On his part, Mungantiwar cited instances when the Shiv Sena had taken positions that had gone against the official stand of the NDA but the BJP did not object for the sake of the alliance.
“In the past, we did not object when the Sena backed Pratibha Patil for President’s post and later Pranab Mukherjee. The Sena had also backed Sharad Pawar for Prime Minister’s post. We maintained restraint to ensure that our old alliance with the Sena does not break,” Mungantiwar added.