Maharashtra polls : Both BJP and Congress struggling to save their alliances

New Delhi:  The BJP core committee has rejected the offer made by the Shiv Sena to the party. The BJP has told Uddhav Thackeray that the party cannot accept 117 seats being offered to it by the Shiv Sena. The BJP President Devendra Fadnavis said that since the BJP fought on 119 seats last time, it cannot accept the offer of 117 seats this time. He also said that the message has been conveyed to Uddhav Thackeray who has to take the final call.

Both Congress and BJP are trying to bargain hard with their respective alliance partners in Maharashtra over seat sharing and the CM candidate.

Till yesterday, it appeared as if BJP-Shiv Sena alliance was on the verge of collapsing but the expediency to dislodge Chavan government forced them to hold their horses and the two parties announced that the alliance will stay intact although the stalemate over seat sharing still continues.

After BJP-Shiv Sena, now it seems as if the Congress-NCP alliance is on the verge of collapse although even these two parties are aware that they don't stand any chance if decide to go it alone in assembly elections.

Congress's alliance with NCP in Maharashtra appears headed for trouble as the Sharad Pawar-led party is yet to give a “positive response” to the former's proposal for seat-sharing for the upcoming Assembly polls.
 
Maharashtra Congress chief Manikrao Thakre told reporters after a meeting of the party's Central Election Committee (CEC) here that they will have to prepare for all 288 seats in the state if a response from NCP does not come within a day or two.

He said Congress was racing against time to finalise nominations for the Oct. 15 polls and that time is of the essence for tying up the seat-sharing arrangement.  

The CEC today held deliberations on the selection of candidates for the 174 seats in Maharashtra which the party had contested in the last Assembly polls.  Without going into the number of seats offered by Congress to NCP, Thakre said there has been no response so far to the proposal from NCP.

The talk is that Congress has offered 126 seats to NCP which, however, is pitching for as many as 144 seats.  “If NCP remains adamant on its demand for more seats, then we will have to go it alone,” he said in a reply to a query.
 
In the last Assembly elections, Congress had contested 174 seats while NCP had put up 114 candidates.  The remarks came as the process for the filing of nominations for the Assembly polls began today with the issuance of the election notification.

Coming to BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, a day after the ice was broken; Shiv Sena and BJP leaders today held talks to end the tangle over seat-sharing for Maharashtra Assembly polls but failed to reach an agreement.

The two oldest NDA allies, however, insisted they did not want the alliance to come apart.

Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Vinod Tawde said Shiv Sena has proposed to contest 155 seats, leaving 125 for BJP, while the remaining of state's 288 seats would go to the smaller allies. “This is unacceptable to us,” Tawde, a BJP leader, said.

September 27 is the deadline for filing of nominations for the October 15 polls.

“There will be a clarity on the alliance issue in the next 24 hours,” Tawde said.

After days of frosty silence, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had last night sent his 24-year-old son Aditya Thackeray and senior leader Subhash Desai for talks with BJP's Maharashtra election incharge O P Mathur and then sent a seat-sharing formula to the ally.

State BJP core committee members today considered the proposal holding two rounds of meetings where Mathur and party general secretary incharge of Maharashtra Rajiv Pratap Rudy were present. Subhash Desai also held talks with state BJP president Devendra Fadnavis.
Shiv Sena has, meanwhile, said a decision on the alliance may be taken tomorrow.

“Uddhavji has been authorised by the party to take a call on the alliance. Shiv Sena executive committee is meeting tomorrow and an announcement is likely to be made,” Sena spokesman and MP Sanjay Raut said.

Tawde also said BJP president Amit Shah wants the alliance to continue.

“I spoke to Uddhav Thackeray yesterday. Today, Fadnavis and Desai met. BJP president Amit Shah is also insisting that the alliance should remain,” Tawde said.  “We are doing all we can to keep the alliance intact.  It is a bond of 25 years,” Tawde said, adding “we feel that it should not break over issues like which party gets how many seats and which leader becomes the chief minister.”

Tawde said BJP was stressing on discussing the 59 seats Shiv Sena and 19 seats BJP had contested but did not win in the last five elections. “There needs to be a restructuring so the party which can win these seats should field its candidate there,” he said.

“Our aim is that we should win at least 200 of the 288 seats to give 11.88 crore people of Maharashtra a progressive government,” he said.
Meanwhile, senior Sena leader Anil Desai insisted there is no threat to the alliance between the two parties which “is going to stay”.

“We are aware of the fact that the Mahayuti is very important for Maharashtra. The alliance between us is definitely going to stay. More than the offer (of seats), alliance is important. Uddhavji will announce his decision within 24 hours,” he told reporters after meeting the Sena chief.
“Media reports that our alliance will break is a fiction. We are only working out the finer points before we announce our seat-sharing formula,” he said.
 
Maharashtra, which has over 8.28 crore voters, has a single-phase poll to elect its 13th Assembly.  Sept. 27 is the deadline for filing nominations.

After scrutiny of papers, the last date for withdrawal of nominations is Oct. 1. Counting of votes will take place on Oct. 19. The current Assembly's term expires on Nov.