Shiv Sena, BJP engage in fresh tussle over allies as Maharashtra assembly elections approach

Mumbai

The Shiv Sena and the BJP are caught in a fresh tussle over accommodating several smaller parties in the Maharashtra assembly elections due in October, according to sources.

While the original plan was that the two outfits would contest 135 each of the 288 seats in the assembly leaving the rest for their allies, things went haywire earlier this week when state BJP leaders suggested that the smaller parties contest under the lotus symbol. Shiv Sena leaders felt that the BJP was trying to backstab the regional party.

“Should the BJP win more seats under the lotus symbol, it would automatically lay claim for the post of chief minister,” a Shiv Sena leader observed.

The regional parties too were miffed by the proposal that would result in them losing their identities. Republican Party of India leader Ramdas Athawale and Rashtriya Samaj Party leader Mahadev Jankar
were the first to oppose such a move.

At a meeting of Shiv Sena leaders on Thursday at the residence of party chief Uddhav Thackeray, a section of the party leaders felt that the BJP was preparing to betray the regional party like it did in
2014. After winning the Lok Sabha elections that year, the BJP brokeup with the Shiv Sena on the eve of the assembly elections.

Some leaders also criticised the BJP for fobbing off the Shiv Sena with an insignificant berth like the Heavy Industries ministry in the Narendra Modi cabinet.

Under pressure from his party colleagues, Thackeray announced that the Shiv Sena would contest 144 of the 288 seats, leaving the BJP toaccommodate the allies from its quota. The Shiv Sena chief also tried
to put the BJP on the defensive by announcing that he would lead theparty’s MPs to Ayodhya where they would offer prayers at the makeshift temple for Lord Ram.

With the Shiv Sena raising its voice, the BJP has decided to go slow on wooing defectors from the Congress and the NCP who had won fromseats that the Sena was eyeing.

Former Leader of the Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil of theCongress who resigned from the state legislature, fellow MLAs AbdulSattar and Kalidas Kolamkar and several others who are making a
beeline to the BJP had defeated the Shiv Sena’s candidates in the 2014assembly elections when the saffron allies contested separately.