BJP, Shiv Sena break alliance of 25 years

The 25-year-old alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena ended on Thursday, with the parties deciding to contest election to the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly independently.

BJP claimed it had made all efforts to salvage the alliance but was forced to call it off because the Sena refused to allot more seats to smaller parties in the Maha Yuti alliance.

“Shiv Sena came out with a 151:130 formula, leaving only seven seats for the Maha Yuti allies — Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS), Rashtriya Samaj Party (RSP), Republican Party of India and Shiv Sangram. BJP strongly rejected this, saying these parties, which had joined the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance with the common objective of dislodging the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government, should be treated with honour. However, no new offer was forthcoming from the Sena,” said BJP’s Maharashtra unit chief Devendra Fadnavis.

The decision to snap ties with the Shiv Sena was taken by BJP’s state unit, after consulting the central leadership of the party. Earlier, both parties had held talks after BJP President Amit Shah spoke to Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray over phone. But these negotioations failed to build a consensus.

The call to part ways was announced by BJP’s Fadnavis and Eknath Khadse, the leader of Opposition in the state Assembly. Khadse said the two parties were stuck in a deadlock over the number of seats, adding the Sena focused only on numbers and not the state’s welfare. “They were adamant on their proposal. We conveyed to them that bringing down the Congress-NCP government was priority but they were more interested in the chief minister’s post.”

Fadnavis said BJP would now contest the state election in alliance with SSS, RSP and Shiv Sangram. Efforts will be made to rope in the Republican Party of India as well.

Blaming the Sena for the break-up, Fadnavis said: “The Sena has not accommodated the alliance partners and us the way it should have. There is nothing new in the different proposals it is coming up with.”

Shiv Sena leader Diwakar Raote countered this by claiming BJP was in a haste to break the alliance. “We came with a seat-sharing proposal but were made to sit for two-and-a-half hours... there was no response from BJP,” he said, adding his party was prepared to go it alone. Raote also said BJP’s general-secretary incharge for Maharashtra, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, left for New Delhi without holding talks with the Shiv Sena.