BJP, Shiv Sena yet to agree on seat-sharing

A day after saving their 25-year alliance from splitting, the BJP and the Shiv Sena were Saturday yet to reach an agreement on seat-sharing for the Oct 15 Maharashtra assembly elections.

The Sena has now proposed a new formula for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other allies, which numerically appears to be an improvement over Friday's 119 seats that had been dismissed outright by the BJP.

"Shiv Sena's fresh proposal proposes 126 seats to the BJP, 155 for Sena, and seven for Swabhimana Sanghatana. Out of the BJP's 126, we have to accommodate other three partners with about nine seats, leaving us with 117 seats," Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Vinod Tawde of the BJP told media persons.

This formula would now be finalized at a separate meeting between BJP state president Devendra Fadnavis and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, he announced.

If accepted by both sides, the final tally would be 155 for the Sena, 117 for the BJP and 16 for the smaller partners in the 288-member assembly.

On Friday, the Sena had proposed 119 for BJP and 169 for Sena, including the share of the alliance partners, which the BJP rejected.

Tawde did not comment whether the latest proposal was acceptable to the BJP but merely said it would be discussed further between Fadnavis and Thackeray.

It is also not clear whether, in the revised proposal, the Sena has taken into account the BJP's demand that both parties should retain the seats which they have won at least once in the past and carry out a review of the seats they had never bagged.

This works out 110 seats with the Sena and 100 for BJP which each have bagged at least once in the past elections.

Another 78 seats - 59 seats which Sena has never bagged and 19 which BJP has never won would figure in the final discussions besides the share of the other smaller partners in the alliance.

Insisting on an alliance with "dignity and respect", the BJP has said it was talking about sharing the 78-odd seats which neither the SS nor the BJP has ever won.