All lovey-dovey: BJP close to getting130 seats

After the protracted five-­setter game of brinkmanship over the last one week, the prime contenders for power, the Shiv Sena ­ BJP alliance, is close to wrapping up a seat­sharing arrangement.

The Shiv Sena will keep 151 seats and the BJP 130, according to this formula. The four smaller parties in the Mahayuti (grand alliance) of six parties, will have to scramble among themselves for seven seats. Until Monday night, the formula Sena had - the 151– 124 – 12 formula – was unacceptable to the BJP.

A sort of standoff still continues for some more crumbs from here and there. But leaders of the two parties together faced the media on Tuesday for the first time in several days. They asserted that that the 25­year­old alliance will remain intact and a new formula is being worked out.

Senior Sena leader and MP Sanjay Raut said, "The alliance will remain intact. Both the parties are keen on the alliance". Suddenly, leaders like him were sounding all conciliatory after all the aggressive talk and muscle-flexing over the last few days.

BJP leader Vinod Tawde said, "Both the parties want to oust the Congress­NCP from power. We feel the alliance should remain intact and different proposals are being worked out to resolve the seat-sharing issue." They were almost sounding like long lost friends.

When asked why smaller allies should accept such a less number of seats and stay within the alliance, a BJP leader said, "We will simply ask them whether they want the grand alliance to stay or no. If they want to be a part of grand alliance, they must accept less number of seats (7) ."

The move towards a resolution happened after after BJP president Amit Shah called up Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray in a bid to pull back the 25­year­old alliance from the brink of disintegration.

The BJP had, on Monday, given a fresh proposal to the Sena, seeking for itself 130 of the state's 288 seats, a marginal climbdown from its earlier demand for 135, which its saffron ally had summarily rejected.

On Tuesday, senior leaders of both the Sena and the BJP met at the BJP's headquarters in Dadar in the presence of O P Mathur, election in­charge of BJP in Maharashtra.