On Mumbai visit this week, Shah will have his plate full

A senior Union cabinet minister said: “Notwithstanding power positioning among the state leaders, the final decision on next chief minister will be determined by the central leadership. And this is the message Shah is likely to strongly convey to settle the unrest in-house.”

However, Shah’s biggest headache will be to win over Sena. Shah, who has already began his campaign in Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana, had urged the Maharashtra BJP leadership to resolve the issues with allies, including the Shiv Sena.

He had sent a stern message that all seat-sharing talks with partners in the BJP-led grand alliance had to be settled in the state and not in Delhi. This set the ball rolling as Sena president Uddhav Thackeray agreed to hold a discussion with state BJP leaders.

On August 27, state BJP chief Devendra Fadnavis took the discussion ahead with Uddhav to settle the seat-sharing disputes related to smaller groups. It was followed up next day as a team of Sena and BJP leaders sat again for discussion, which remained inconclusive.

To some extent, the BJP has managed to pacify its smaller allies who were making unreasonable demands for Assembly seats. To begin with, Republican Party of India (RPI) chief Ramdas Athavale appears to have already shed his aggression and reconciled to the BJP’s proposal. “We have to be reasonable and not fight for seats,” he said.

The BJP has already offered Sena 153 of the total 288 seats and kept rest of the 135 seats for itself. According to its proposal, both would part with nine seats each to leave 18 seats for smaller allies like Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, Rashtriya Samaja Party, Shiv Sangram and RPI.

Insiders said Shah had already maintained that expansion of the party could not be compromised at any cost and alliance partners should also reckon the ground reality.

Meanwhile, Amit Shah’s maiden visit to Mumbai as the BJP head on September 4 is likely to be a grand party event. Shortly after his name was announced, he had visited Nagpur last month to meet RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, to apprise the latter of the new BJP team at the centre. Shah had also held a luncheon meeting at state BJP chief Devendra Fadnavis at his residence in Nagpur.