To form government in Maharashtra, will BJP join hands with Shiv Sena or NCP?

Early trends in the Maharashtra assembly counting have indicated that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has taken leads in more than 100 seats, but may not be able to get the simple majority. This has thrown an interesting question before the party: should it now join hands with Shiv Sena, which fought bitterly against BJP, or should it seek support from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) whom they called 'Naturally Corrupt Party'?

After the 25-year old alliance between Shiv Sena and the BJP fell apart over seat sharing, Sena had accused the BJP of backstabbing it, with party chief Uddhav Thackeray going to the extent of labelling BJP’s massive electoral campaign 'Afzal Khan’s army'.  On the eve of the polls, Uddhav even said if a chaiwala could become the prime minister, then he (Uddhav) too could become chief minister.

On the other hand, the BJP remained silent on Sena and focused its attack on the NCP, calling its leaders 'Bhrashtavaadi'. Prime Minister Narendra Modi even held a massive meeting in Sharad Pawar’s bastion Baramati, and called for an end from the slavery of 'Chacha-Bhatija'.

The trends now indicate the BJP is ahead on 105 seats while Sena and the NCP are ahead on 55 and 50 seats respectively. It is almost clear that in a 288-member house, the BJP will not get to the magic figure of 145 on its own.

Backroom parleys have already begun between the parties, and after the early attack, both Sena and the BJP have softened their stance towards each other. The BJP is also trying to send a signal to Sena by starting a dialogue with the NCP.