After days of vacillation, Shiv Sena finally indicated it was willing to break ties with estranged ally BJP by staking claim to the leader of the opposition post in the Maharashtra assembly for its group leader Eknath Shinde. This may also be aimed at forcing BJP's hand on a rapprochement with its former ally since the Devendra Fadnavis-led government is in a minority in the assembly.
Earlier, both Sena and BJP sources admitted that formal talks between the two parties over power-sharing have come to a standstill. While Sena sources claimed BJP's response to their demands was cold, BJP leaders admitted their party's wish to corner and snub Sena further by keeping it waiting to join the Maharashtra government.
On Monday evening, Sena MLC and deputy leader Neelam Gorhe said they had submitted party chief Uddhav Thackeray's letter nominating Shinde, an MLA from Kopri Pachpakhadi in Thane, to the post. "The party is number two in the state assembly with 63 MLAs... it is our right to have a leader of opposition," she added.
On the first day of the session, Congress, which nominated former minister and co-operatives baron Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil as its group leader, said it would stake claim to the leader of opposition's post if Sena did not.
Sena's vacillation on its ties with BJP had led to unease in some legislators at the party's "humiliating" treatment by its erstwhile junior ally.
On Sunday, Sena suffered the ignominy of BJP weaning off its former union minister and technocrat Suresh Prabhu, who joined BJP and was made the railway minister. Just 10 minutes before the swearing-in ceremony, Sena informed BJP that Rajya Sabha MP Anil Desai, who was to become a minister of state in Narendra Modi's government, would not take oath of office, after power-sharing talks for Maharashtra failed to make headway. Later, Sena president Uddhav Thackeray asked BJP to choose between them and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, which has offered outside support to BJP government.
Sena and BJP were allies for 25 years after they joined hands in 1989. Sena is BJP's oldest ally and the second-largest in the NDA, after BJP, with 18 MPs. The alliance snapped just before the assembly polls over seat-sharing and the campaign saw Uddhav go hammer and tongs at his former ally. However, Sena emerged a distant second against BJP, which had 122 seats in a fractured house. But NCP managed to steal a march over Sena by declaring unconditional outside support to BJP, spoiling Sena's plans for a possible reconciliation and inclusion in the government.
The vacillation also exposed differences within Sena. While some legislators and leaders were eager to become ministers, many Sainiks wanted the party to sit in the opposition.
Senior BJP leaders claimed Sena had missed an opportunity by staying away from the swearing-in as Desai taking oath of office would have stepped up pressure on state BJP leaders for a compromise. Desai was tipped to be a junior minister for health or rural development. Before Sena staked claim to the leader of opposition's post, BJP leaders said they are open to a deal with their former ally, something which they had been claiming ever since the assembly results were announced. "That we were willing to accommodate Sena in the union cabinet shows we were eager for a tie-up," claimed a senior BJP leader.
He added that their government will survive as no party wanted it to fall and said they were in a position of strength.
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