BJP, Shiv Sena’s 25-yr alliance ends 25 days before Maharashtra polls

Will fight it with smaller alliance partner to keep Congress-BJP out, says state BJP chief Devendra Fadanavis

GN Bureau | September 25, 2014




After days of rancor over seat-sharing, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday parted ways with its 25-year-old alliance partner Shiv Sena ahead of the Maharashtra legislative assembly elections, scheduled for October 15.

The BJP said though the party wanted to continue the tie-up, the Sena’s demands were not flexible.

Addressing the media in Mumbai on Thursday evening, Maharashtra BJP chief Devendra Fadanavis said talks over seat-sharing were going on for the last several days but the two parties could not arrive at anything concrete. “The Shiv Sena never showed enough flexibility in taking the grand alliance forward despite several compromises made by BJP,” he said.

“With time running out, we have decided to snap ties with our long-term partner and contest the assembly polls with smaller allies of the 'mahayuti' (grand alliance) to keep the Congress-NCP out of power in Maharashtra,”  Fadanavis said.

The BJP leader also said though talks on seat-sharing were always on, the options offered by Shiv Sena were not acceptable.

The split assumes significance as it comes just 25 days before the assembly elections to be held on October 15. 

Earlier, the two allies had, after several rounds of talks, agreed to the formula of 151 seats for Shiv Sena and 130 for the BJP. The remaining seven, out of the total 288 seats, were left for the smaller parties which include Swabhimani Shetkari Sangathan, Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, Republican Party of India (Athavale) and Shiv Sangram.

But the smaller parties in the alliance objected to the proposed formula, leading to the deadlock.

Comments

 

Other News

Why foundational literacy and numeracy is key to school education

Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) are often described as the building blocks of education. Yet, their significance goes well beyond a child’s ability to read a sentence, write a response or solve a basic mathematical problem. These foundational skills shape how children understand the world,

When police data becomes the algorithm

For decades, policing has followed a familiar sequence: a crime occurs, the police respond, an investigation produces records and those records become part of the institutional memory of the criminal justice system. Artificial intelligence is beginning to alter that sequence. Instead of merely recording

Before India voted, the framers worried about the referee

“We are making a Constitution forever and not only for today.” Shibban Lal Saksena said this in the Constituent Assembly on June 15, 1949. He was warning that a ruling party might one day choose a loyalist to run India’s elections. Seventy-seven years later, the Supreme Court is wrestli

Delhi moves to real-time traffic management

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi, has approved implementation of the ITMS Project by Delhi Police at an estimated cost of Rs.1,789.52 crore, inclusive of taxes. The project will cover 42 identified traffic corridors and will be implemented in three

MDR on UPI: Can sustainability come without weakening the network?

The extraordinary transaction volumes and value (₹29.82 Lakh crore in August 2026 alone) of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) have made it not only an Indian success story, but a global one. In 2024, UPI accounted for nearly 49% of the world’s real-time payment transaction volume, with more th

The Xi-Trump summit: The unending rivalry

Diplomacy is akin to an art, wherein the summitry, conflict resolution and negotiations form apt constituents of the entire context of deal making and “playing for keeps” in the international arena. The Xi-Trump summit in Washington last week, in which the American president broke all conside

Upcoming Conferences



-->

Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter