The 25-year-old Shiv Sena-BJP alliance breathed its last on Thursday , bringing to an end a robust and stormy era in coalition politics in Maharashtra and India. After more than a fortnight of often bitter negotiations over seat-sharing for the October 15 assembly polls, BJP announced the decision at a press conference at the party's Backbay Reclamation state headquarters. A phone call from BJP national president Amit Shah to Maharashtra unit chief Devendra Fadnavis sealed the saffron alliance's fate, it is learned. Senior state BJP leader Eknath Khadse conveyed his party's farewell to Sena president Uddhav Thackeray over the phone.
The tussle over the chief minister's post turned out to be the biggest stumbling block during talks, with Sena repeatedly saying that Uddhav would be CM after the elections and BJP saying its ally was not willing to cut its seats from 151 because it wanted to claim the top post. Amit Shah had said during a visit to Mumbai in August that the next government in Maharashtra would be led by BJP .
Addressing the press conference after a final round of seat-sharing talks with Sena, which was fruitless, Fadnavis said, “We are heading for the October polls with smaller parties.“
The BJP said it had won over junior partners in what it claimed was Phase Two of the `maha yuti'. The party will contest 250 seats across the state, giving 38 to junior partners, Khadse said.
BJP's core committee for the Maharashtra polls met earlier in the day and formal ly decided to bring to an end the poll partnership which Bal Thackeray and Pramod Mahajan flagged off in 1989.
After the core panel ended its deliberations, Khadse put a call to Uddhav and told him about BJP's decision.
The Nationalist Congress Party on Thursday said it was terminating its 15 year alliance with Congress, accusing the bigger party and particularly CM Prithviraj Chavan of not being serious about continuing the partnership. The combination came undone within hours of the saffron alliance breaking, over NCP's demand of half the 288 assembly seats and a 50:50 share of the chief ministership by rotation.
After days of deadlocked seat-sharing talks, the Congress move to unilaterally release its first list of 118 candidates late on Wednesday seemed to have proved the last straw for NCP . “We have terminated our alliance with Congress. Now we will secure support of like minded parties and contest all the 288 seats,“ senior NCP leader Praful Patel said at a press conference attended by deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and state NCP president Sunil Tatkare after a long meeting. In a facile gesture, NCP also decided to pull out of the state government. Pawar met the governor on Thursday evening.
CM Chavan reacted sharply to the decision. “NCP alone is responsible for terminating the alliance, it was wrong to blame us.When Congress had moved a step forward, NCP was adamant and unilaterally decided to terminate the alliance,“ he said.
In a press conference in the city after the NCP announcement, the CM seemed to take potshots at his former deputy and ally . “NCP ended the alliance over the personal agenda of an individual... It's a remarkable coincidence today that NCP terminated its alliance with Congress after BJP terminated its alliance with Shiv Sena. Now we will have to watch if there are new combinations in the state,“ he said.Party sources said the Congress may tie up with the Samajwadi Party in the state.
Reiterating his stand for the last few days, Chavan said the NCP was “unreasonable... (and) approached Congress with preconditions“. The party had wanted to stick to its 2009 seat-sharing formula: 174 seats for itself and 114 for NCP .But it increased the NCP's share to 124, but the party took a rigid stand. “There can't be discussion with preconditions,“ Chavan said.
Though the Congress high command remained cold, Patel said he and Pawar had submitted a proposal for allotment of 144 seats and the chief minister's post by rotation. “Our contention was that since our performance has improved, we should be given more seats.In addition, since Congress was holding the CM's post for 15 years, we felt NCP should be given the post for two and half years,“ Patel said.
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