Sena agreed to pact after BJP nod for sharing CM's post: Kadam

The Shiv Sena forged an alliance with the BJP in Maharashtra after there was an agreement to share the chief minister's post, senior Sena minister Ramdas Kadam said Wednesday.

The Sena leader said if the BJP did not wish to fulfil its commitment, it was free to break the pre-poll alliance immediately.

"The Sena-BJP pact has been agreed on two major conditions. One was scrapping the Nanar refinery project in Konkan area and the other was sharing the chief minister's post for half-terms each," Kadam told reporters.

He said despite BJP chief Amit Shah's commitment, it was unbecoming of senior BJP leaders to make statements that the party getting more seats in the Assembly will decide on the chief minister.

Kadam's comments came after senior BJP minister Chandrakant Patil said the party winning more seats in this year's Assembly elections will get the chief minister's post.

"It has been decided to have the chief minister's post with both parties for two-and-a-half years each. If the BJP does not want to fulfil its commitment, it should break the alliance right away," Kadam said.

The BJP and the Shiv Sena had on Monday announced a seat-sharing pact for the upcoming Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly polls, overcoming their strained ties and previous declarations of going solo.

The announcement was made by Shah and Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray at a joint press conference here.

They said the BJP will contest 25 seats and Shiv Sena 23 of 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. The two parties will contest an equal number of seats, after allotting allies their due share of segments, in polls for the 288-member state Assembly, due later this year.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the two parties along with their allies had won 42 out of the 48 seats. The BJP had bagged 23 seats, while the Shiv Sena had emerged victorious in 18 constituencies.

But the two parties contested the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly election separately. The Sena joined the government, formed in October, in December that year.