Mumbai: One of the oldest political alliances in India is over with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena deciding to fight the Maharashtra Assembly elections alone.
Announcing the decision at a press conference, BJP leader Eknath Khadse said that they made all efforts possible to maintain the alliance but the options that were offered by Shiv Sena were not acceptable to them.
He also said that the two parties were locked in a deadlock over the number of seats adding that the Shiv sena focussed only on numbers rather than focussing on the state's welfare. "They were adamant on their proposal. We conveyed it to the Shiv Sena that bringing down the Congress-NCP alliance is the priority but they were more interested in the Chief Minister's post," Khadse said.
The 25-year-old alliance which had swept Maharashtra in the recent Lok Sabha elections winning 41 out of the 48 seats came to an end after several days of intense wrangling over seat sharing for the Assembly elections scheduled for October 15.
After days of meetings and talks over seat sharing in the Maharashtra Assembly elections, the grand old Mahayuti is now over. The decision to split the alliance came after BJP President Amit Shah cancelled his Mumbai visit yet again on Thursday even as a late night meeting between the BJP and Shiv Sena failed to reach any solution.
The Shiv Sena had in fact reached out to the BJP one last time on Thursday to try and settle the tussle. Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had spoken to BJP President Amit Shah as Shah cancelled his Mumbai visit.
Thackeray told Shah not to set very high goals and also asked him not to stretch the issue any further. Uddhav Thackeray also spoke to BJP's Maharashtra in-charge Om Mathur and asked for an announcement to be made as soon as possible.
The Shiv Sena had demanded 151 seats for itself, leaving 127 for the BJP. Thirteen seats had been offered to the smaller parties. The Sena had proposed this new formula at the talks that were held late on Wednesday night.
The smaller parties in the Mahayuti had issued an ultimatum of Thursday, 11 am to resolve the seat sharing issue. They were unhappy with the proposal of giving only seven seats to the smaller parties.
The Republican Party of India, the Rashtriya Samaj Party and Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghathana had rejected the Sena's offer of seven seats to them and had threatened to release their list of candidates. They were demanding 18 seats.
Earlier, the Sena had proposed 151 seats for itself and 130 for the BJP.
Here is a look back at where the Mahayuti began:
- In 1989, the two parties formed an alliance after talks between late Bal Thackeray and late Pramod Mahajan.
- In 1995, the Sena-BJP alliance won the Assembly elections and formed the government.
- In 1999, Sena-BJP lost power to the Congress-NCP combine, but decided to stay together.
- In 2006, Bal Thackeray's newphew Raj formed the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.
- In the 2009 Assembly elections, the BJP contested 119 seats and Shiv Sena 169.
- In 2012, the BJP tried to warm up to MNS.
- In 2014, the BJP-Sena alliance won 41 seats out of total 48 in the Lok Sabha elections.
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