Maharashtra polls: Negotiations on with Shiv Sena, says BJP

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy on Monday said the negotiations with the Shiv Sena over seat sharing for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly polls are on, and added that his party would comment on the matter only after receiving the feedback from its alliance partner.

Rudy said that the Shiv Sena is a trusted partner of the BJP, and added that it would be too early to make any comment in this regard as of now.

"There is a proposal which has been given by the state leadership under the mandate of the central leadership to the Shiv Sena Chief and it is too early to make any comments on that but as long as the negotiations are on, it would be inappropriate for us to make any comment," said Rudy.

"We are waiting for their feedback formally so that we can strategize how to go about it but as of now talks are on, on a very right footing," he added.

Amid the ongoing war of words over seat sharing in election-bound Maharashtra, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray earlier today said that he wants the alliance between his party and the BJP to remain intact. He, however, refused to give 135 seats to the BJP.

After concluding seat-sharing talks with four smaller parties, the BJP had earlier on Sunday offered equal number of seats to the Shiv Sena. The BJP had also deferred Shiv Sena's demand for the Chief Minister's post.

The friction between the two political parties intensified after Uddhav Thackeray delivered a sharp warning to the BJP about 'lust for power' in the party mouthpiece 'Saamna'.

The Maharashtra assembly poll is scheduled to be held on October 15. According to certain media reports, the BJP wants to have a greater share of Maharashtra's 288 assembly seats, crediting the verdict of the Lok Sabha polls to be a wave in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The BJP won 23 of Maharashtra's 48 seats while the Shiv Sena won 18 in the Lok Sabha polls. The Congress-NCP alliance, which has governed Maharashtra since 1999, emerged victorious in only six seats.