Fresh offer of seats are five seats less than the demand made by the BJP but 11 more than originally offered by Sena.
BJP insiders claimed the party has agreed on the new formula offered by Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray but the official announcement would be made only on Wednesday as some loose ends remained to be tied. It is expected the official announcement would be made after a discussion with the smaller members of the alliance like the Republican Party of India.
Differences had cropped up over seat-sharing in the 25-year-old alliance as Shiv Sena refused to bring down the number of seats it would contest below 150 even as the BJP demanded 135 seats. Since the Maharashtra house has 288 seats, BJP wanted 18 to be given to smaller members of the alliance. Thackeray initially refused to agree and after the talks remained frozen for two days a compromise was reached on Tuesday.
However, it is yet to be known the number of seats the Sena is going to contest. The reason is: if they have offered 130 seats to BJP, then they are left with only 158 seats out of total 288 assembly seats. This means they have to satisfy themselves with anything between 149 to 151 seats because they have to keep some seats for the regional parties like RPI, Rashtriya Samaj Paksh, Swabhimani Shetkari Paksh and Shiv Sangram etc.
There are speculations that the seats sharing formula of 130 seats to BJP and 149-151 seats to Sena might invite stiff resistance from the regional parties because they will be left with a meager 6-7 seats only – going by the new seat sharing formula. Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut said, ‘We had a meeting and agreed the alliance should remain. We are firm that the old alliance should continue. We have chalked out a new proposal and it will be discussed with our other alliance partners.’
BJP insiders claimed the party has agreed on the new formula offered by Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray but the official announcement would be made only on Wednesday as some loose ends remained to be tied. It is expected the official announcement would be made after a discussion with the smaller members of the alliance like the Republican Party of India.
Differences had cropped up over seat-sharing in the 25-year-old alliance as Shiv Sena refused to bring down the number of seats it would contest below 150 even as the BJP demanded 135 seats. Since the Maharashtra house has 288 seats, BJP wanted 18 to be given to smaller members of the alliance. Thackeray initially refused to agree and after the talks remained frozen for two days a compromise was reached on Tuesday.
However, it is yet to be known the number of seats the Sena is going to contest. The reason is: if they have offered 130 seats to BJP, then they are left with only 158 seats out of total 288 assembly seats. This means they have to satisfy themselves with anything between 149 to 151 seats because they have to keep some seats for the regional parties like RPI, Rashtriya Samaj Paksh, Swabhimani Shetkari Paksh and Shiv Sangram etc.
There are speculations that the seats sharing formula of 130 seats to BJP and 149-151 seats to Sena might invite stiff resistance from the regional parties because they will be left with a meager 6-7 seats only – going by the new seat sharing formula. Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut said, ‘We had a meeting and agreed the alliance should remain. We are firm that the old alliance should continue. We have chalked out a new proposal and it will be discussed with our other alliance partners.’