BJP plays hard to get as a desperate Shiv Sena tries to save alliance

Even as the Shiv Sena and BJP leaders jointly announced on Tuesday that both the parties are keen on keeping their alliance intact, a series of dramatic events that unfolded through the evening, clearly showed that the Shiv Sena was getting a little desperate to keep the alliance in place and the BJP was increasingly becoming unwilling to continue, given the miniscule number of seats its smaller allies were offered. The Shiv Sena on Tuesday made the first step to end the ongoing impasse with its alliance partner, BJP over the seat sharing issue. They agreed to give the party the 130 seats it had asked for as opposed to the 119, they had initially offered.  As per the Sena’s new proposal given to the BJP, Sena would contest from 151 seats, BJP in 130 seats and remaining seven will go to the four small alliance partners. The reason that the BJP seems unwilling to budge from their demands of more seats for their smaller allies is because these ties were forged very recently. These allies were made prior to the Lok Sabha elections and they had played a crucial role in ensuring the victory of several BJP candidates in Western Maharashtra and Marathwada region. These four partners include the Ramdas Athawale-led Republican Party of India (RPI-A), the Raju Shetty-led Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS), the Mahadev Jankar-led Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP) and expelled NCP leader Vinayak Mete’s Shiv Sangram. [caption id=“attachment_1727367” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Uddhav Thackeray and Narendra Modi. AFP.[/caption] That is possibly why the JP is not happy with the Sena’s decision to not reduce the number of seats they plan to contest from. On 22 September morning, the Sena leaders met at Matoshree to decide the future of the saffron alliance and the new formula was worked out in this meeting. Since the BJP had put the ball in the Sena’s court and cornered it to take the final call on the alliance’s fate,  the Sena sought a meeting with the state BJP leaders later in the day. Following the meeting, the leaders from the both parties announced their keen interest in keeping the saffron alliance intact saying that they would consult with the four smaller allies to discuss the new formula and keep the partnership going. By blinking first, some will say, the Sena took the necessary first step to save their crucial alliance. The BJP had called a meeting of its senior leaders, all district presidents, MLAs and MPs from across the state to discuss on the assembly elections a few days back. Sources say that were almost ready to announce a split from the Shiv Sena. “Clearly several leaders would have spoken against the Sena and that would have created a favourable environment for us to announce a split from the party. We would have said that the local party leaders aren’t happy about the alliance and that would have helped convince the central leadership of the BJP,” said a BJP leader. However, following the meeting with the Sena leaders, the BJP’s political honchos seemed rather pleased about the fact that the former had made an effort to save their alliance. “When we received the call on Tuesday, we were elated as they had come forward keeping their ‘ego’ aside and presented us a with a new formula on seat sharing. Interestingly, they also came to our office for the meeting which was shocking for us as it has never happened in the past 25 years. BJP leaders had always gone to Matoshree for meetings,” said a senior BJP leader on condition of anonymity. “In its proposal, the Sena also agreed to our demand of 130 seats. They have made it clear that they are ready to acknowledge our party as an equal in the alliance and in the state as well. This shows that the Sena is desperate to save our alliance in the state,” the leader said. He added that the BJP will now hold meetings with the smaller allies to brainstorm over the new seat-sharing plan. According to sources, the Sena leaders were hoping that the smaller allies would come around and agree to contest from a fewer number of seats if they are promised important positions in various government bodies if the BJP-Sena alliance wins. However, things didn’t go according to the Sena’s plans as the smaller allies played truant and refused to settle for lesser number of seats. The leaders from the four smaller parties walked out of the meeting. Sensing the Sena’s desperation and taking advantage of the other allies’ anger, the BJP backed the later and cornered the Sena hoping to wrench a few more seats away from Thackeray’s party. “It is not right on the part of the Sena to reduce the four small allies’ seats to accept our demand of 130 seats. Since these four partners together can make an impact on the outcome of 50 assembly seats in the Western Maharashtra and Marathwada, they cannot be ignored and should be given an honorable  number of seats,” said another BJP leader, requesting that he shouldn’t be named. The leader added that the Sena should actually climb down from their pedestal and settle for a few less seats than 150. “If they agree to take less than 150 seats, then things can change but nothing can be said at the moment,” added the leader, stating that the BJP would not make any announcement on the alliance in the coming few days. The Sena is unwilling to accept less than 150 seats given the fact that Yuva Sena chief Aditya Thackeray, Uddhav’s son, has launched ‘Mission 150’ in July with the aim of making Sena president the next chief minister. BJP leaders are of the view that these four smaller parties may not win too many assembly seats on their own but they are expected to play a crucial role in ensuring a win for the saffron candidates across the state. The BJP believes that these smaller parties have a sizable presence in different communities and regions. Raju Shetty of SSS, who has been aggressively targeting Sharad Pawar and the NCP for ignoring agrarian issues, has major influence in the sugarcane belt of western Maharashtra. Similarly, Mahadev Jankar of the RSP, a prominent leader of the Dhangar community in Western Maharashtra, has also been targeting Pawar on the issue of reservation for Dhangars, a promise the Congress-NCP government has been unable to fulfill on its own. Together, Shetty and Jankar can make a large dent to the NCP in its bastion of Western Maharashtra. The RPI on the other hand has considerable influence in the Dalit community in Mumbai and in parts of Marathwada. The Shiv Sangram has great goodwill among  Marathas in Marathwada, supporters of the NCP for many years now.