Shiv Sena, MNS suspend seat sharing talks citing time constraints

Despite “new-found bonhomie” between estranged Thackeray cousins Shiv Sena chief Uddhav and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj, seat-sharing talks between the two for the Maharashtra Assembly elections reached nowhere. Both the parties called off the talks, citing paucity of time as elections are slated for October 15.

Besides, Raj’s team members — Bala Nandgaonkar and Rajan Shirodkar – told Shiv Sena’s negotiators that MNS won't play a second fiddle, especially in Mumbai, Pune, Nashik and Aurangabad where the party has made inroads.

On the other hand, Shiv Sena team members, Vinayak Raut, Anil Desai and Milind Narvekar, insisted that their party, which has won three Lok Sabha seats in Mumbai and, couple of seats in Thane, Aurangabad, would improve its tally in the Assembly polls.  ''Shiv Sena, which faced drubbing at the hands of MNS in the civic body election held in February 2012, made a strong case for getting Dadar-Mahim seat bagged by MNS in 2009 polls. Besides, Shiv Sena staked claim over the Sewree seat represented by MNS legislator Bala Nandgaonkar. However, MNS refused to vacate these seats,'' sources in the know told Business Standard.

Shiv Sena officially denied any attempt by the party to strike a deal with MNS. Curiously, MNS remained silent and did not confirm or reject stories doing the rounds in this regard.

However, Shiv Sena and MNS teams struggled to take the seat-sharing talks forward, as there was no consensus on the division of seats between the two. “Already both the parties had announced their candidates, as the filing of nomination ends on Saturday. There was no scope an alliance. Therefore, talks were suspended late Friday night,” sources said.

More importantly, MNS, which had failed to open its account in the Lok Sabha elections, was not prepared to take yet another risk. ''During general elections, Raj fielded 10 candidates and extended his party's support to other nominees of Peasants and Workers Party. But while doing so Raj went on repeating in his speech his party's support to Narendra Modi as the prime minister. This confused the MNS supporters. This time Raj did not want to repeat the same mistake but to sell his blue print for Maharashtra's growth,'' sources said.

Uddhav launched his party's campaign on Saturday, while Raj will begin his on Sunday.