Maharashtra elections: 50:50 formula may not hold; Shiv Sena likely to get fewer seats than BJP in alliance

Mumbai: Assembly election schedule for Maharashtra was announced on Saturday and as per the Election Commission, polling will take place in the state on October 21. Results, meanwhile, will be announced three days later on October 24.

Meanwhile, two leading parties in the state – the BJP and the Shiv Sena (the ruling alliance partners) – have yet to come up for a seat-sharing formula for the 288 seats that will go to vote.

It has now been learned that the Shiv Sena and the BJP may not finalise a 50:50 seat-sharing formula and the former may be given lesser seats.

Sources say the talks are not going as per Sena’s plans and how its leaders had earlier projected. It was earlier reports that 18 seats may be given to rest of the allies and the majority of the remaining seats be divided equally between the BJP and the Shiv Sena.

However, as per the latest inputs available, the Shiv Sena is likely to get anywhere between 110 to 120 seats. In fact, earlier this week, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had put the blame on the media for floating the 50:50 formula.

Thackeray’s remarks have made BJP’s task easy as they no longer see any major resistance coming in from the Shiv Sena’s side.

Sources said the Shiv Sena’s bargaining power has reduced and an indicator of the fact is none of the major BJP leaders has visited Sena headquarters Matoshree as the talks progressed.

Home Minister and BJP chief Amit Shah, who had visited Matoshree prior to the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, too has skipped the Sena HQ even though he was in Mumbai.

As per the latest surveys as well, if the two parties fail to stitch an alliance this time, the Sena might lose from its current tally and may win just around 40 seats. The BJP, on the other hand, is expected to gain.

Further, the Shiv Sena is also expected to bear the larger brunt of any anti-incumbency as it is in control of most of the civic bodies across the state.

The leaders of the two parties, earlier, had expressed confidence about coming back to power as an alliance by winning more than 220 seats.

State BJP chief Chandrakant Patil had exuded confidence, saying Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s 'Mahajanadesh Yatra' had got an overwhelming response across the state.

"The 'Yuti' (alliance) will burst crackers a day before Diwali (due later in October). Our preparations are complete," Sena spokesman Sanjay Raut told reporters separately.

In the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly elections, the BJP had won 122 seats while the Sena had bagged 63 out of the total 288. It may be noted that the two parties in 2014 had contested separately.