Uddhav Thackeray calms ally’s nerves

A timely phone call from Uddhav Thackeray may just have saved what could have snowballed into a row in the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance even as they seemed to have settled with their existing seat sharing arrangement.

Hours after Sena mouthpiece Saamna on Friday claimed that the party was going to contest from the Mumbai South, Kalyan and Yavatmal-Washim constituencies, Thackeray thought it wise to call state BJP president Nitin Gadkari for a meeting in order to continue negotiations on seat sharing. 

Grabbing the opportunity, the 22-year-old ally has now put down their terms and conditions for negotiations with Sena. A source in the BJP said: “Thackeray put a proposal before Gadkari to hold negotiations on seat sharing in New Delhi in presence of BJP’s national leaders.

Gadkari turned down the proposal and asserted that the negotiations would be conducted in Mumbai. He also insisted that the negotiations would take place only if Sena admits that LK Advani is their prime ministerial candidate.”

Gadkari also demanded that Thackeray should be present during the negotiations to avoid any ambiguity, the source said.

Gadkari held a meeting with his party colleagues Gopinath Munde and Vinod Tawde after he received Thackeray’s call. “The leaders insisted that BJP should get one seat among Mumbai South, Kalyan and Yavatmal-Washim from Sena,” the source said.

The seat sharing in the alliance has been deadlocked over these three seats. Both the parties have forwarded their claim on them. In a meeting with Munde on Wednesday senior Sena leader Manohar Joshi reportedly accepted BJP’s claim over Kalyan.

However, Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut on Thursday insisted that Sena would
contest from the seat.

Raut’s claim had angered Gadkari and he demanded that if Sena wanted to contest from Kalyan, BJP should get Mumbai South and Yavatmal-Washim.