BJP, Shiv Sena tie up for LS poll
BJP to get 25 seats, Sena 23 in national elections
MUMBAI: Overcoming their strained ties and declarations of going solo, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena on Monday announced a seat-sharing pact for the ensuing Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Maharashtra.
The announcement was made by BJP president Amit Shah and Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray at a joint press conference in the night, shortly after Shah flew in from Jaipur.
MUMBAI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena on Monday said they will fight both the Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections together.
The relations between the parties has remained strained for four-and-a-half years, but on Monday, leaders of both parties said they decided to work together considering changing political realities on the ground.
Fadnavis justified the alliance saying the parties shared a common “Hindutva” ideology, while Thackeray sought to deflect criticism over tying up with BJP after promising to fight the elections solo, saying, “All Hindus have been looking forward to this day”.
The parties announced their pre-poll alliance after BJP president Amit Shah and CM Devendra Fadnavis visited Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aaditya at their Bandra residence, Matoshree, and held one last round of negotiations on Monday evening.
The alliance for the 288-member Assembly elections, however, comes at a political cost for the BJP, with the party agreeing to an equal sharing of both seats and power in the state if the parties win. None of the leaders spelled out whether the CM’s post would also be shared equally.
Senior BJP leaders said the deal indicated a more egalitarian sharing of portfolios and the likelihood of creating the post of a deputy CM — which the current government does not have.
For the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP has decided to contest 25 of the 48 seats, while the Sena will contest 23. During alliance talks, the Sena had demanded the Palghar Lok Sabha seat, which the BJP currently holds. A senior BJP leader said the party has agreed to this demand, even though the BJP had won it in 2014 and later in a bypoll last year.
Shah said: “The Sena and Akali Dal are our oldest allies, who have stayed with us through thick and thin. Our alliance has been based on common ideology. There were some differences of opinion, but today, all these misconceptions have been sorted out. Both BJP and Sena party workers will now start a joint campaign to bring the NDA government back to power,’’ Shah said.
The leaders justified the alliance saying both parties believed in a common “Hindutva” ideology. “We have been in an alliance for the past 25 years. We have had our difference of opinion over issues, but fundamentally, we are Hindutva parties, our basic ideology is the same,” Fadnavis said.