BJP calls ‘emergency’ meet of all office-bearers and party members
The 25-year-old saffron alliance appeared to be on the verge of a split on Monday night with the Maharashtra BJP declining to have further seat-sharing negotiations with the Shiv Sena and the party’s central leadership indicating that the party would contest all the 288 seats in the State Assembly polls in the absence of an electoral tie-up with its long-term ally.
In a clear pointer to the fact that it was gearing itself up to the eventuality of contesting all the 288 seats in the State Assembly polls, the Maharashtra BJP called an “emergency” meeting of all its district office-bearers, and elected representatives on Tuesday morning to deliberate on the ways to handle the emerging situation.
In an apparent effort to ready the cadres across the State to the prospect of the party going it alone in the polls, BJP’s national president Amit Shah tweeted around 3 pm: “I appeal to all karyakartas to dedicate themselves for Maharashtra elections.”
Hours before Shah’s tweet, the State BJP had sent out urgent messages to all district presidents, district office-bearers, MlAs, and MPs for a meeting at 11 am at the party’s Dadar office in Central Mumbai.
State BJP chief Devendra Fadnavis is expected to address the meeting, which would discuss the party’s strategy for expediting matters relating to the Assembly polls, including filing of nominations in all 288 seats in the event of the party snapping its ties with the Sena.
The first indication of an irretrievable deadlock in the saffron alliance came from Maharashtra BJP president Devendra Fadnavis who categorically stated that his party had no plans to make any fresh attempt to bring the Shiv Sena around to accepting its latest demand for 130 seats.
Asked specifically if the BJP intended to make what perhaps is a last-ditch effort to prevail upon the Sena to agree to its latest demand for 130 seats as against the 135 seats it had demanded in the initial stages, Fadnavis said: “let me tell you frankly, there is no ball in our court now. The ball is in the Shiv Sena’s court. It is for the Sena to decide what to do next”.
On the speculation in the media that BJP’s poll in-charge for Maharashtra Om Prakash Mathur was planning to meet Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, Fadnavis said: “As far as my knowledge goes, no such meeting has been scheduled”.
In New Delhi, BJP’s general secretary in-charge for Maharashtra Rajiv Pratap Rudy said that his party would contest all the 288 Assembly seats in Maharashtra, if it was “compelled” to part ways with the 25-year-old ally Shiv Sena.
“We would like our alliance with the Shiv Sena to continue. As per the wishes of the people in Maharashtra, we would like to go to the Assembly polls as a strong alliance with the Shiv Sena, unseat the Congress-NCP Government there and form our Government. However, in the event of our not being able to arrive at a seat-sharing understanding for any reason with the Shiv Sena, the BJP will contest all 288 seats and secure majority on our own strength,” Rudy told mediapersons in the Capital.
Rudy said that the BJP had sent a fresh proposal of 130 seats to the Shiv Sena for the Maharashtra Assembly polls.
“We expect a positive response to our highly liberal proposal of 130 seats from the Sena... What we are telling the Sena is: give us some of the seats that it had never won in the last 30 years... Give us the worst possible seats but give us the numbers,” Rudy said.
Informed sources in the BJP, meanwhile, said that BJP president Amit Shah had been authorised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take a final call on seat-sharing negotiations in Maharashtra.
According to sources, the BJP is not planning to hold any more Central Election Committee (CEC) meetings, given that it had -- at its meeting held on Sunday -- already discussed all 288 poll-bound Assembly seats in Maharashtra.
Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena sought to posture that it was still keen on continuing its alliance with the BJP, notwithstanding the breakdown of seat-sharing talks between both the parties.
Participating in a television show, Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut said: “The alliance is in the ICU, but it can recover its health. Many times the patient survives due to his own willpower to live, and good wishes of his relatives. So, let us hope it survives. The Shiv Sena wants the alliance to survive, but the upper hand in Maharashtra must remain with the Shiv Sena, and the Chief Minister should be from the Shiv Sena”.
Raut said that the bickering for seats would not have happened had Balasaheb Thackeray been alive. “This is the first election after Balasaheb passed away. The Shiv Sena workers want to fulfil his dream of seeing Shiv Sena’s saffron flag flutter atop Mantralaya (State Secretariat) once again and see Uddhav Thackeray as the Chief Minister,” Raut said, clearing indicating that the Sena would not compromise on the issue of keeping the Chief Minister’s post with itself.
In a related development, both the saffron alliance partners steadfastly denied that Shah and Sena chief Udhav Thackeray spoke to each other to end the stalemate arising out the latter’s insistence that it would not offer more seats than the party’s “final offer” of 119 seats out of total 288 seats.
Addressing a convention of his party’s elected representatives from all over Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray had said on Sunday: “I am making a final offer of 119 seats to the BJP. Under this seat-sharing formula, the Shiv Sena will contest 151 seats, while the BJP will get 119 seats. We will give the remaining 18 seats to four other constituents in the Maha-Yuti”.
“That means if the BJP accepts our final formula, the Shiv Sena will contest 151 seats, while the BJP will contest 119 seats. From my side, I will give remaining 18 seats to the four alliance partners in the Maha-Yuti”. With this, I am making it clear to the BJP: please do not tell me to increase your share of seats. I am requesting the BJP not to fool the people of Maharashtra. Whatever the final offer that the Sena is making to the BJP is the interest of Maharashtra,” the Sena president said.
“Yesterday (on Saturday), Devendra Fadnavis came to me and requested me to take the initiative to ensure that the saffron alliance. Tell me what can I doIJ He told me that the BJP would contest 130, while the Sena could contest 140 seats. I made it clear to Fadnavis that the decision is not my hand. I cannot betray the Shiv Sainiks who love me,” Uddhav had said.
Meanwhile, the four smaller constituents of “Maha-Yuti” urged the Sena and the BJP to iron out their differences and go to the polls as an alliance.
“We have been mediating between both the big parties to ensure that the alliance remains intact. Time is rapidly running out, and if they want, they can take back all seats they are offering us, but end their stand-off,” Swabhimani Paksha chief Raju Shetty said.