The decision needs to be taken within two days on seat sharing which can satiate each other’s self-respect as last day of nomination for Maharashtra Assembly elections is September 27.
The seat sharing between two allies has escalated into a huge battle for respect.
With Bhartiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena locking horns, one my say that either of the two is disconnected from reality.
But which one?
After Uddhav Thackeray’s ‘final offer’ of 119 seats, Amit Shah and other top leaders held marathon of meetings in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also present. Reportedly, Shah made a “very liberal offer”, climbing down from the initial demand for 135 seats to 130 seats. He also offered to accept the “worst possible seats” which the Sena has not won in the last 25 years.
By doing so, the BJP is trying to put itself in good light and claim that the party is doing everything it can to save the alliance. However, at the same time, it has cleared almost 220 candidates, prepared slogans — for both scenarios — and has already taken the smaller allies into confidence.
On the other hand, this matter of ‘self-respect’ for Sena has also become an arrogant thrill where Uddhav is looking for payment of favours done by his father Balasaheb Thackeray to Modi.
Uddhav apparently said, “Everyone knows how terrible the situation was when the Godhra riots took place…Everyone was saying that Modi should be immediately removed from the Gujarat CM’s post. At that time, it was only Balasaheb who told LK Advani that Modi should stay on, given that he pursues the Hindutva ideology.”
It served as the right kind of ammunition to agitate BJP leaders. The statement has opened a kind of floodgate where every BJP leader is venting out his problem with Sena and its Big Brother attitude.
They are agitated by the fact that Uddhav is drawing Modi into his silly demand of payback.
A section of the leaders is also miffed at his decision to depute his son Aditya to negotiate with senior party leaders including Om Mathur. They are also pointing out how the Sena chose to back Congress candidates, Pratiba Patil and Pranab Mukherjee in the last two Presidential elections.
The fickle mindedness of Sena (accepting and discarding Modi wave at the same time and other recklessness) has made the top leadership tilt more towards getting rid of this partnership which has always pulled the leadership in a wrong manner.
The party has made it clear that whichever party will win more seats will get the chief ministerial post which upsets Uddhav’s CM dreams. It has also sent a clear message that it will not bend backwards.
The decision needs to be taken within two days on seat sharing which can satiate each other’s self-respect as last day of nomination for Maharashtra Assembly elections is September 27.
Needless to say that Modi’s presence in all the meetings affected all the decisions.
We all know, Modi does not want to buckle down under the pressure of any ally like former PM Manmohan Singh did under UPA.
