BJP says ‘insulted’ as Shiva Sena offers only 119 seats in Maharashtra, calls meet to decide on alliance

Speaking to The Indian Express over telephone, a senior leader who was in the meeting said, “Yes, it is extremely insulting as Sena has become more stubborn. They have not only rejected our formula, but also conveyed to our leader O P Mathur that BJP will not get more than 119 seats. And it should also accommodate its allies in that.”

The BJP leader said, “The 119 seats are not acceptable. And if Sena does not accept our formula of Sena 144, BJP 126 and allies 18; we will break the alliance.” The BJP is all set to contest 288 seats on its own.

The decision comes shortly after BJP president Amit Shah declared at a public rally in Chondi (Ahmednagar) that the next Maharashtra government will be made by the BJP.

Meanwhile, the Sena is upset as Shah did not mention them in the rally. A Sena MP said, “Shah completely ignored the Sena. Why should we give them more importance? Let them contest alone.” He added, “Till yesterday we were considering to contest 150 seats thus climbing down from our 169 seats which we contested in 2009. But BJP should also consider us as a major political party in the state.”

A senior BJP leader told The Indian Express, “The Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray has rejected our proposal which was conveyed today. To the contrary, the Sena emissaries have conveyed that the BJP should contest only 119 seats and within that accommodate its alliance partners.”

In 2009, polls for 288 seats Sena contested 169 seats and BJP 119 seats.