BJP-Shiv Sena ties to stay intact for Maharashtra Assembly polls

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Maharashtra unit has dropped its earlier idea of contesting the coming legislative assembly elections on its own.

It has now said the 28-year alliance with the Shiv Sena (SS) will continue. BJP’s new national president, Amit Shah, is believed to have rejected the earlier idea.

The state unit has assured Shah it would strengthen the “Maha Yuti”, comprising SS, itself, a group of the Republican Party of India, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana and Rashtriya Samaj Party.

The party admits finalising the share of seats for the 288 constituencies will be tough; all constituents of the alliance want more. BJP itself faces internal pressure to contest 144 seats, compared to the 119 it fought in the 2009 assembly poll. SS, which contested the other 169 in 2009, also wants more. Republican Party of India has not a single seat in the Lo Sabha but has already demanded 35 assembly seats. Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, which has a presence in sugarcane-rich Solapur, Kolhapur and Sangli, has pressed for at least 65. The Rashtriya Samaj Party has demanded a fair due.

Shah, keen to implement a “social engineering” model for the polls on the lines of his successful experiment in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha polls, has categorically said the BJP cannot leave the SS, which had stood with it in good and bad times. In fact, he’d advised state BJP leaders to bring more of smaller parties into the Maha Yuti.

Seat sharing talks are expected to begin by the end of this month. BJP proposes to announce its first list of candidates by August 15. Polling is expected in the third week of October.