‘Talks with BJP only on CM post’: Shiv Sena refuses to budge

After the elections in October, BJP emerged as the single largest party in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly with 105 seats. It is 40 seats short of the majority mark. Shiv Sena with 56 seats is the second-largest party. The Nationalist Congress Party has 54 seats and the Congress 44.

Shiv Sena on Sunday said talks with ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over government formation in Maharashtra will only focus on the issue of chief minister’s post.

The BJP and Shiv Sena have been at an impasse over the power-sharing formula in Maharashtra since the results of assembly elections were announced on October 24.(HT Photo)

Senior Sena leader Sanjay Raut said there have been no talks on government formation yet. “If talks happen, it will only be on the issue of the CM’s post,” Raut was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

BJP and Shiv Sena have been at an impasse over the power-sharing formula. Sena says the two parties agreed to on sharing the chief minister’s post for half the government’s five-year term. The BJP insists that there was no such agreement and CM Devendra Fadnavis says he will be at the helm for five more years.

After the elections in October, BJP emerged as the single largest party in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly with 105 seats. It is 40 seats short of the majority mark. Shiv Sena with 56 seats is the second-largest party. The Nationalist Congress Party has 54 seats and the Congress 44.

Raut, in his weekly column in Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, said that if the BJP decides to impose President’s rule in Maharashtra it would be its biggest defeat of the century”.

In a jab at ally BJP, Raut compared the deadlock over government formation to a “chariot stuck in the mud of arrogance”.

BJP minister Sudhir Mungantiwar had last week said that the state may head for President’s rule if the new government is not formed by November 7.

On Saturday, Mungantiwar said the next saffron government in Maharashtra would be sworn in next week. He also ruled out the alternative of a Sena-Congress government.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday held a closed-door meeting with his party leaders on the possibility of forming an alternative government with the Sena. Pawar is to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday.

Maharashtra Congress leaders met Sonia Gandhi on Friday and suggested that the party should support any move to keep the BJP out of power.