Shiv Sena for 1995 formula for tie-up with BJP in Maharashtra

MUMBAI: A day after reports emerged that the Shiv Sena had insisted on the 1995 seat-sharing formula with BJP for the assembly polls so that it could be the senior partner in the state, Sena leader Sanjay Raut told TOI that the BJP had indeed begun a dialogue, but talks had yet to start. "Let us start with the 1995 formula. We will put forward our views later," Raut said. In 1995, the Sena had contested 171 assembly seats out of a total of 288 and won 73, while the BJP had contested 117 and won 65. The saffron alliance had then formed the state government under the leadership of Sena's Manohar Joshi. In 2014, when Sena and BJP contested the state elections separately, the BJP won 122 seats and the Sena 63.

BJP president Amit Shah called up Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Monday to discuss a pre-poll alliance. The BJP has reportedly offered 50-50 seat-sharing formula for the Lok Sabha polls and may be open to a similar arrangement for the assembly polls, but the Sena is insistent on not only finalising the assembly seats formula right away but also on getting the CM's post, even if it does not win more seats than the BJP.

"Sena is fully ready to contest the LS and assembly polls. However, if somebody has an alliance formula, let them put it before us. They (BJP) can rule in New Delhi, it will be the Sena that will call the shots in Maharashtra," Raut reiterated.

However, a political expert said the Sena had, a year ago, passed a resolution in its national executive committee meeting saying it would go solo in all polls in the future. The more it delayed its decision, the more ground-level party workers would be confused and the image of the party dented, the analyst said.

Meanwhile, asked about the 1995 formula, BJP's Sudhir Mungantiwar, a senior minister in the Devendra Fadnavis government, sarcastically remarked, "No technology has developed yet wherein the media could know what transpired (in a conversation) between two leaders, though BJP has already declared it is in favour of a pre-poll alliance with Sena and leaders are constantly in touch with each other. He clarified that alliances are formed to win the maximum number of seats and not to contest the maximum number of seats.