Maharashtra Assembly polls: BJP stalls seat-sharing talks post Uddhav Thackeray's remark on Narendra Modi

Claiming that Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray's recent comments on Prime Minister Narendra Modi had undermined the latter's contribution to the Lok Sabha elections win, the state BJP on Sunday sent a strong signal to its main ally by announcing that their seat-sharing talks have come to a standstill.

What irked BJP?
During a program organised by a TV channel on Saturday, Uddhav made his chief ministerial ambitions crystal clear, and at the same time commented that it was not just because of the 'Modi wave' that the BJP-Sena alliance won 41 Lok Sabha seats in the state. "Did the Modi wave show in Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Orissa and West Bengal? It depends on alliance partners as well," he had said. Uddhav had also said that if it would have been because of Modi wave, the results in Punjab, where the Akali Dal is BJP's alliance partner, would have been the same as in Maharashtra.

'Thackeray undermined Modiji's contribution'
Chief spokesperson of the BJP Madhav Bhandari told media persons that party workers all across the state are angry with Uddhav's statement about Modi. "Uddhav Thackeray has expressed his chief ministerial ambitions, but it is not a question of who would be the chief minister or what would be the seat-sharing arrangement. Party workers are putting pressure on the party leadership over his statement on Modiji. Thackeray has undermined Modiji's contribution and everyone knows that it was because of Modiji that the entire country has stood by us," he said.

Asked whether seat-sharing talks had been put on hold, Bhandari said, "The talks are discontinued." Reacting to Sena leader Sanjay Raut's statement that the Sena would not accept anything less than 150 seats, the spokesperson said, "Sanjay Raut is not the apex leader of Shiv Sena."

Go it alone, say party workers
Party workers are pressing for a break in the alliance with the Sena so that they can test the waters solo after 20 years. BJP leaders are pleading their case by arguing whether the Sena would won 18 Lok Sabha seats out of 22 without the 'Modi wave', while the BJP won 23 out of the 24 seats it contested. They pointed out that the Sena had won only 6 LS seats with a margin of over 1 lakh votes, winning the other seats with a narrow margin. On the contrary, all the BJP MPs had won their seats by a huge vote margin, which they insist was mainly because of the Modi wave.