Won’t tie up with Raj in state polls, BJP tells Sena

“Sena’s major worry relates to the Assembly elections. They view BJP with suspicion as some of our leaders had offered Raj Thackeray 35-40 Assembly seats in return for staying out of Lok Sabha elections. They kept the issue of MNS alliance open as a counter bargain to elicit their support for BJP’s two candidates in the state legislative council elections,” a senior central BJP functionary told The Indian Express.

For the 288 Assembly constituencies in Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena-BJP seat-sharing formula is set at 169:119. Some of the BJP leaders, namely, former party president Nitin Gadkari, Leader of the Opposition in Legislature Council Vinod Tawde and Mumbai unit chief Ashish Shelar’s growing proximity to MNS has not been received by the Sena.

A senior Sena leader said, “There is a talk that pro-Raj BJP leaders have offered MNS 12 Assembly seats. This is unpalatable to Sena.”

On Tuesday morning when when BJP leaders met Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s residence, state BJP unit president Devendra Fadnavis assured him of party unflinching loyalty to Sena as an ally.

“Sena and BJP are natural alliance partners. The alliance has survived almost three decades and stayed during NDA’s crisis and triumphs,” he said.

Although neither side thought it necessary to discuss MNS in details, backroom negotiations till late Monday night sought to iron out the “differences” between the two.

The BJP’s initiative to resolve the crisis addressed the resentment brewing within the sainiks especially in Mumbai, Nashik and Pune.

Political managers in Sena mediating with the BJP had conveyed that the party was worried about BJP keeping its option of MNS alliance open for Assembly elections. Gadkari’s meeting with Raj, where possible alliance with MNS during Assembly polls, was discussed has upset Sena leadership which believes it could be a ploy to undermine them in constituencies that are their stronghold.

Sources in the BJP recalled that in the past former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani had intervened to ensure that the Sena-BJP alliance remained intact when there were far more serious differences. In 2009, a section within the BJP had suggested an alliance with MNS which was turned down by the party’s central leadership.

BJP president Rajnath Singh too assured Uddhav that BJP would never engage in any new poll partnership at the cost of sidelining Sena in the NDA either for Parliament polls or the Assembly elections.

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