Deadlock ends in divorce, battle of egos kills BJP-Sena alliance in Maharashtra

Mumbai: The 25-year-old BJP-Shiv Sena alliance split today amid continued deadlock over seat-sharing for the October 15 Maharashtra Assembly polls.

After several rounds of talks over the last few days, senior state BJP leaders announced this evening severing of the ties between the two parties, blaming Shiv Sena's “inflexibility” for it.

“We have conveyed our decision to snap ties to Shiv Sena. The decision was taken with a heavy heart,” Maharashtra BJP chief Devendra Fadnavis told reporters after a meeting of the state party's Core Committee.

BJP, however, hinted at the possibility of a post-poll alliance with its estranged ally, saying the party would not criticise Sena during the campaign and remain friends.

“Our aim is to prevent the corrupt Congress-NCP government from coming to power. We will not criticise Shiv Sena during the campaign, we don't want any bitterness with our ally of 25 years,” Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Eknath Khadse said.

Fadnavis said BJP will go to polls with smaller ‘Mahayuti' allies.

He said BJP had worked out a seat-sharing deal with Mahadeo Jankar's Rashtriya Samaj Paksha and Raju Shetty's Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana.

Our talks with Vinayak Mete of Shiv Sangram are in final stages and we will also speak to RPI's Ramdas Athawale, Fadnavis said.

“We reiterate that Shiv Sena is still our friend. We will not criticise Sena and our target will be the corrupt Congress-NCP combine,” he said.

BJP-Shiv Sena Alliance Chronology

1966: Shiv Sena established.

1967: Shiv Sena contested in Thane Municipality Elections for the first time.

1968: Mumbai Municipality Elections- Shiv Sena's “Praja Socialist Coalition” won 42 wards out of 120 wards in Mumbai.

1970: Shiv Sena's first MLA Krishna Desai murdered, after which Vamanrao Mahadik won.

1980: Bhartiya Janta Party established.

1984: Shiv Sena-BJP fought the Lok Sabha elections for the first time. Shiv Sena's two candidates fought over BJP's symbol “Lotus”. But after Indira Gandhi's assaination, Bjp lost the election across the country. Only two BJP MPs won while Shiv Sena's both the lost the elections.

1985: Maharashtra Assembly Elections: Sharad Pawar's earlier “Lok Shahi Dal” established. BJP fought the elections out of the alliance in which its 14 MLA won, after which Balasaheb announced to fight to election alone and only Chaggan Bhujbal won in the assembly elections.

1987: During West-Mumbai Sub-urban Vile-Parle by-elections, while the nation was engulfed by the ‘Ram Janam Bhumi Andolan', Shiv Sena came out with a slogan “Garv se kaho hum Hindu hain” and based on this slogan, Balasaheb started his party's publicity campaign. Mumbai's then Mayor, Dr. Ramesh Prabhu was Shiv Sena's candidate. BJP supported Janta Dal's candidate in the elections. It was then when BJP's Pramod Mahajan suggested the BJP-Shiv Sena's alliance during the Palanpur Executive Meeting, which was accepted by BJP.

1989: BJP-Shiv Sena alliance contested in the Lok Sabha elections for the first time and won 4 seats out of 6, while BJP won 10 seats over 33 places.

1990: Assembly Elections- BJP-Shiv Sena alliance gets a big victory. The alliance's 94 MLA won the elections in which BJP's 42 and Sihv Sena's 52 candidates won. Manohar Joshi became the oppostition leader. BJP contested for 104 seats in the elections.

1991: Chaggan Bahubal left Shiv Sena with 12 MLAs after which Gopinath Munde was chosen to be the opposition leader in the Assembly.

1992: Mumbai Municipality elections: Congress' Chandrakant Hondhre became the Mayor, after which Pramod Mahajan and Balasaheb Thackeray announced to contest together for every election in a press conference.

1992-93: After the Babri Masjid incident in Ayodhya on 6th December 1992, Mumbai witnessed riots in 1992-93.

1999: Narayan Rane became the Chief Minister. Sharad Pawar left Congress before the elections and created a new part “Rashtravadi Congress”. While Shiv Sena and BJP contested on the 171 and 117 respectively seat-sharing election formula, Shiv Sena won 69 seats and 53 seats were won by BJP. But the government was made by the Congress-NCP alliance.

2004: Congress and NCP contested for the elections together, and won 69 and 71 seats respectively, while 62 seats were won by Shiv Sena and BJP won 54 seats.

2005: Narayan Rane joined Congress.

2005: On 17th December, Raj Thackereay, left Shiv Sena, he resigned from all the posts on 27th December.

2009: MNS was established on 9th March.

2009: MNS contested for the first time in the Assembly elections. While Congress contested for 82 seats, NCP and BJP contested for 62 and 119 seats respectively and BJP won 46 seats. As Shiv Sena contested for 169 seats, it won 44 seats, while MNS' 13 MLAs won the elections.